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The Fallacy of Single Trials: The Need for Multiple Trials in Assessing Running Economy Responses in Advanced Footwear Technology

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Abstract

In the quest to uncover the underlying mechanisms responsible for the performance-enhancing benefits imparted by advanced footwear technology (AFT), footwear researchers are employing an individual-level approach. In doing so, they hope to unveil individual-specific responses to AFT otherwise masked by a group-level approach. Classifying an individual’s response on the basis of running economy (RE) is a logical strategy given that the intended purpose of AFT is to enhance performance; however, caution should be taken when doing so. Metabolic measurement devices are far from perfect, and given the known errors associated with metabolic measurements we would like to reiterate a suggestion first made 40 years ago: when seeking to quantify the interindividual variability of improvement in RE associated with running in AFT, the best practice is to rely on a minimum of two same-day measurements of RE.

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Notes

  1. Technical error of measurement (TEM) is calculated from the difference within each pair of measurements (D), and the number of measurement pairs (N) [32]: \({\text{TEM}} = \sqrt {\frac{{\sum D^{2} }}{2N}}\).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Integrative Locomotion Laboratory, Department of Kinesiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

    Zach B. Barrons, Victor Rodrigo-Carranza, Montgomery Bertschy & Wouter Hoogkamer

  2. Sports Performance Research Group (GIRD), University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain

    Victor Rodrigo-Carranza

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  1. Zach B. Barrons
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Correspondence to Zach B. Barrons.

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The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

Wouter Hoogkamer has received research grants from PUMA and Saucony. No footwear company had any influence on the conceptualization of this article or on the views presented herein.

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WH conceptualized the article. ZBB, VRC, MB, and WH researched and wrote the article.

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Barrons, Z.B., Rodrigo-Carranza, V., Bertschy, M. et al. The Fallacy of Single Trials: The Need for Multiple Trials in Assessing Running Economy Responses in Advanced Footwear Technology. Sports Med (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01991-1

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