FAY, L., B. R. LONDEREE, T. P. LAFONTAINE, and M. R. VOLEK. Physiological parameters related to distance running performance in female athletes.Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 319–324, 1989. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between running pace for the 5 km, the 10 km, and the 16.09 km (10 mile) distances and the following variables: oxygen uptake and treadmill speed at predetermined lactate accumulation points (2.0 and 4.0 mmol·l-1), oxygen uptake (running economy) at three submaximal standardized treadmill speeds (196, 215, and 241 m·min-1), and maximal oxygen uptake. Thirteen moderately to highly conditioned (&OV0312;O2max= 59.7 ± 5.3 ml·kg-1·min-1; &OV0312;O2at 2.0 mmol·l-1of plasma lactate = 46.6 ± 4.1 ml·kg-1·min-1) female runners between the ages of 18 and 33 yr volunteered to participate. All subjects performed the laboratory tests and the 5 km, 10 km, and 16.09 km competitive time trials on an outdoor 5 km course. The correlation coefficients (r) between each race pace and maximal oxygen uptake (&OV0312;O2max), speed (s) at 2.0 mmol·l-1plasma lactate accumulation (PLA2s), and speed at 4.0 mmol·l-1plasma lactate accumulation (PLA4s) ranged between 0.84 and 0.94. The oxygen costs of running at each of the three submaximal paces were correlated moderately with each race pace (r = −0.40 to −0.63). Hierarchal stepwise multiple regression analyses produced equations with two independent variables which explained 94 to 97% of the variability in race performance.