The finding, supported by an energy-optimization model, that human gait transitions during long overground travel under time pressure are not sharp switches at one speed but occur across a broad transition regime (about 1.9 to 3.0 m/s) in which people use graded mixtures of walking and running. Students learn how whole-task metabolic energy minimization, including the transient cost of switching gaits, predicts both the existence of these walk-run mixtures and their internal structure, such as the speed gap between the walking and running bouts.
This study examines human walk-run gait transitions during overground travel over long distances (800 m or 2400 m) under time constraints, unlike prior treadmill experiments where speed is externally…