Physiological correlates to 800 meter running performance.

Much of the previous research efforts aimed at determining those physiological characteristics that contribute to distance running success have centered around distances greater than 1500 meters with little attention to events such as the 800 meter run. Therefore, this investigation examined the relationship between selected physiological and body composition, characteristics and performance in an 800 meter run. Measurements of body composition, VO2max, running economy, and performance times for 100 and 300 meter dashes were obtained on 11 male track athletes. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed using 800 meter race time as the dependent variable. Although the combination of 300 and 100 meter run times, percent body fat, running economy and VO2 max as independent variables accounted for the greatest amount of total variance (r2 = .89), the additional variance explained by the model did not increase significantly (p greater than 0.05), when VO2max, percent body fat, and running economy were added to a model which contained 300 and 100 meter run time (r2 = .85) as the explanatory variables. These data offer additional support for the notion that much of the intramuscular ATP produce and utilized during an 800 meter run comes from anaerobic metabolic pathway.