Running injury and stride time variability over a prolonged run

Locomotor variability is inherent to movement and, in healthy systems, contains a predictable structure. In this study, detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) was used to quantify the structure of variability in locomotion. Using DFA, long-range correlations (α) are calculated in over ground running and the influence of injury and fatigue on α is examined. An accelerometer was mounted to the tibia of 18 runners (9 with a history of injury) to quantify stride time. Participants ran at their preferred 5k pace ± 5% on an indoor track to fatigue. The complete time series data were divided into three consecutive intervals (beginning, middle, and end). Mean, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV) and α of stride times were calculated for each interval. Averages for all variables were calculated per group for statistical analysis. No significant interval, group or interval × group effects were found for mean, SD or CV of stride time. A significant linear trend in α for interval occurred with a reduction in α over the course of the run (p = 0.01) indicating that over the run, stride times of runners became more unpredictable. This was likely due to movement errors associated with fatigue necessitating frequent corrections. The injured group exhibited lower α (M = 0.79, CI95 = 0.70, 0.88) than the non-injured group (p = 0.01) (M = 0.96, CI95 = 0.88, 1.05); a reduction hypothesized to be associated with altered complexity. Overall, these findings suggest injury and fatigue influence neuromuscular output during running.