Quick Dips

Taking Runners Beyond the Wall

Marathon runners hitting the wall could become a thing of the past and human powered flight made easy thanks to award-winning research at Massey University.

Associate Professor of Statistics Hugh Morton has created a critical power model that determines how a person's available energy supply relates to their endurance and exhaustion level.

In the past, athletes have used complicated physical tests of oxygen intake and lactate build-up to determine endurance levels. The alternative was a two-parameter mathematical model that often proved inaccurate. Morton's model, a world first, brings a third element into the equation. With little more than an athlete completing a series of time trials on an exercycle, a very accurate gauge of endurance can be made.

"We found that if you are working really hard, then the body keeps a little behind in reserve for an emergency," says Morton.

"It is just like a marathon runner hitting the wall -- total exhaustion is a condition they can achieve but it takes a lot of practice to know how far from the end they can be and still finish."

He says the model he has created makes it relatively easy to estimate the affect of long duration activity. He points to a group who crossed the English Channel using human-powered flight.

"If they had stopped pedalling they would have ended up in the sea and there is a minimum level of power needed to stay aloft. This model will be able to tell if they have enough energy to stay in the air for the 4.5 hours needed before they leave the ground."