Running · 4 min read
Running economy is the oxygen cost of running at a given pace. It measures how efficiently the body converts energy into forward motion. Two runners with identical VO₂ max values can perform very differently in races — and running economy is often the reason.
By DVOTION Team ·
Running economy is expressed as the volume of oxygen consumed per kilogram of body weight per minute at a given submaximal speed. A lower value means better economy — the body is using less oxygen to maintain the same pace.
This is different from VO₂ max, which measures the highest oxygen uptake possible. Economy is about how efficiently the body operates below that ceiling. An athlete with a high VO₂ max but poor economy will burn through their aerobic capacity faster than an equally fit athlete with better mechanics. An athlete with a moderate VO₂ max but exceptional economy can outperform a higher-ceilinged competitor at most race distances.
Elite marathon runners often have VO₂ max values that are lower than what you might expect given their race times. Running economy is a significant part of why — elite marathoners tend to be exceptionally efficient, getting more speed out of each litre of oxygen than less economical runners.
At longer distances, economy compounds. Even a small efficiency gain translates to a meaningful pace advantage held over two, three, or five hours. This is why improving running economy is a high-value target for any endurance athlete whose events exceed 30–40 minutes.
Critically, running economy cannot be reliably estimated from watch data. Devices that display an 'efficiency' score are producing estimates from heart rate and pace. Measured economy requires a lab test.
Running economy is influenced by several factors that interact with each other.
Biomechanical efficiency refers to how well the body's movement translates energy into forward motion — stride mechanics, cadence, ground contact time, vertical oscillation, and how force is absorbed and transmitted at each foot strike.
Neuromuscular efficiency relates to tendon stiffness, elastic energy return, and how the lower limb spring behaves under load. Well-adapted tendons store and return energy efficiently; less adapted tendons waste it as heat.
Metabolic efficiency describes the body's ability to use fuel and clear lactate at submaximal intensities. Aerobically adapted athletes use oxygen more effectively at any given pace.
Movement strategy — how the body organises force transmission from foot strike through the kinetic chain — underlies all three. A system that leaks force at each transition requires more oxygen per stride to maintain speed.
A runner whose system cannot yield efficiently under load at foot strike, and then redirect force upward and forward, compensates at every stride. Those compensations — excessive hip drop, asymmetrical ground contact, energy absorbed by structures that should be transmitting it — raise the oxygen cost of running.
This is why movement strategy assessment and VO₂ max testing can be particularly revealing in combination. The VO₂ data tells you the physiological ceiling and where lactate thresholds sit. The movement assessment reveals whether the mechanics are supporting or undermining efficient use of that ceiling.
When movement strategy improves and force leakage reduces, running economy typically improves without any other change in training. The same physiological system becomes more efficient.
Running economy is the energy cost of running at a given submaximal speed. Measuring it requires gas exchange to be recorded across several steady-state stages, each held long enough for oxygen uptake to settle, which is a different protocol from a maximal test.
Our endurance testing records gas exchange during the maximal test and blood lactate across the progressive stages before it. That returns your thresholds, your curve and your training zones rather than a running economy figure. The two are kept apart on purpose: a metabolic mask adds breathing resistance, added resistance raises the metabolic cost of submaximal work, and a lactate curve read through a mask is not the same curve. The thresholds are what the assessment exists to establish, so nothing is added to those stages that could move them.
Where economy is the question, it needs a protocol of its own: submaximal stages held long enough for oxygen uptake to settle, with the mask on and no blood sampling to work around.
For runners who want an integrated view across every area, Complete Athlete Profiling covers resting metabolic rate, endurance physiology with blood lactate, movement and force production, and sweat and hydration, across three visits.
Yes. Strength training — particularly plyometric and heavy resistance work — improves tendon stiffness and elastic energy return. Movement strategy work reduces mechanical energy leakage. Both have documented effects on running economy independent of changes to VO₂ max.
Both matter and interact. VO₂ max sets the ceiling; economy determines how efficiently you operate below it. At longer race distances, economy becomes increasingly significant — an economical runner can outperform a higher-VO₂ competitor, particularly in events over 60 minutes.