Evolution of perceived footwear comfort over a prolonged running session.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to investigate the subjective perception of overall footwear comfort over a prolonged running session.


METHODS
Ten runners performed two similar sessions consisting of a 13-km trail run (5 laps of 2.6 km) as fast as possible. The overall footwear comfort was evaluated before running and at the end of each lap with a 150-mm visual analogic scale, as well as speed, heart rate and rate of perceived exertion.


RESULTS
The results showed that both overall footwear comfort and speed decreased consistently during the run session, and significantly after 44 min of running (i.e. the 3rd lap). It could be hypothesized that the deterioration of overall footwear comfort was explained by mechanical and energetical parameter changes with time and/or fatigue occurring at the whole body, foot and footwear levels.


CONCLUSIONS
These results justify the use of a prolonged running test for running footwear comfort evaluation.
Laboratoire de Physiologie de l'Exercice, EA 4338, Université de Savoie, Le bourget-du-lac, France. Electronic address: frederique.hintzy@univ-savoie.fr.
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Hintzy
Laboratoire de Physiologie de l'Exercice, EA 4338, Université de Savoie, Le bourget-du-lac, France; CTC-Comité Professionnel de Développement Economique Cuir Chaussure, Lyon, France.
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Cavagna
Laboratoire de Physiologie de l'Exercice, EA 4338, Université de Savoie, Le bourget-du-lac, France; Salomon SAS, Amer Sports Footwear Laboratory of Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology, Les Croiselets, Annecy Cedex 9, France.
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Horvais
D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005528:Foot / Q000502:physiology*; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D012775:Shoes / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
Fatigue; Rate of perceived exertion; Shoes; Test/retest protocol; Visual analogue scale