Strike Plate Test

Kayla changing her shoes
for the study

Both the Men's and Women's Weber State Cross Country teams have had the opportunity this past week to participate in a study that is being done by one of the student athletic trainers.

To start off we go run our 18 minute warm up just like we would before a race. We then do four 100-meter strides. By this time we are warmed up and ready.

We are each assigned a number so that it is anonymous. Then we randomly draw if we will be wearing spikes or our training shoes. We then wear the other pair of shoes the next day of the test. We also randomly draw if we will be running a 5k or mile pace first.

The cameras recording us

We run down the long jump runway down at the indoor track past sensors that tell us if we are on pace. We then have to run in stride across a strike plate. You have to get this perfect so that you don't have to slow down or lengthen your stride to hit it right.



The strike plate

This measures how much force is actually being pushed back up into our feet. We have so much force going down into the ground so this measures how much is coming back. It also records how our feet hit the ground. It's cool because he can go back and look to see if our shoes affect the way we run or strike the ground.

I really liked being a part of this study. It was fun and I liked being able to help someone with their experiment for class. I'm excited to see what he finds and to learn about the way I run.