Why You Should Be Running Strides

What Strides ARE:

·         “Accelerations”

·         A simple and fun way to add speed

·         Not quite maximum effort (85-95%)

·         Less than a minute long

·         Something you add to an easy run once a week

·         Helpful to get you used to running faster

·         A great introduction to strict speedwork

What Strides ARE NOT:

·         Maximum effort sprints

·         Something you do after every run

How do Strides Work?

Strides help a runner to develop and maintain the mechanics of running faster. How? Think of “learning to run faster” like “learning to ride a bike.”

Most of us can’t remember back that far, but first we learned to crawl, then walk. We eventually became very comfortable with walking. So comfortable, in fact, that we could soon walk without thinking about it. We could even walk while doing other things, like chewing gum for example. Then it was time to learn to ride a bike. Oh my! So much harder than walking! So many things happening at once – left foot, right foot, round & round… lean left, lean right... steer left, steer right… oh no, I’m going too fast – squeeze your hands (both, not just one)… or, pedal backwards! Riding a bike was a new, complicated set of body motions that all had to be in sync, or you would not be successful. But very soon, we (most of us) were able to ride a bike without thinking much about it.

Running fast is similar. Learning to run is a little more complicated than learning to walk. One foot in front of the other… how far out do I stretch my legs? Should I land on my toes or my heel? Swing your arms… downhill… uh-oh, speeding up! Uphill… this is getting harder! Is that dog on a leash, or not? Look out – a car! There’s a lot going on here, and once again most of us can figure it out and do something that looks like running, without thinking too much about it.

Learning to run faster is even more complicated. Consider the level of conscious thought involved. When you learned to walk, you had to think real hard about everything. Until you didn’t. Same with riding a bike. Same with running. What’s going on in our brains and muscles? To over-simplify it, we build neuromuscular pathways. Our brain, nerves, and muscles are learning how to interact. When we first start a new activity, it takes conscious thought. When our bodies get used to that – some call it “muscle memory” – it requires less conscious thought.

Right now, you run at some default speed – your easy, conversational pace. But, if you think about it, you can run a little faster than that for a while. Stop thinking about it, though, and your body reverts to the speed it “remembers”, that it can do without thinking. Also, the longer you “run faster”, the harder it gets, because your cardiovascular system is not accustomed to your muscles’ greater need for oxygen. And that means… in order to maintain that “faster” pace, you have to think about it more & more, until your mind and body are both too tired to continue at that pace.

So, strides help us build the neuromuscular pathways required to run faster. Strides help us practice running faster. Strides help our muscles and heart and lungs practice running faster. Eventually, just like with learning to walk, or ride a bike, or running, you are running faster automatically and not thinking about it!

You know what comes next, right? Run faster than that!

How to run strides:

On an “Easy Run” day (NOT a “Recovery Day”!), start your strides work about a mile before the end of your run.

1.       Start at your normal, easy, conversational pace.

2.       Run “faster” (whatever that means for you) for twenty steps (ten with each foot)

3.       Next, run “even faster” for twenty more steps

4.       Hang on to that same “even faster” speed for another twenty steps

5.       Next, slow back down to only being “faster” than normal/easy pace for twenty more steps

6.       Over the next 20 steps, slow back down to your normal, easy, conversational pace.

You should have traveled about 100 yards (the length of a football field), and it should have taken about 40-50 seconds. That’s it. See, I said it was easy. When you first start doing strides, start with just one. If you didn’t hurt yourself, the following week you can try two strides. After a stride, run a few minutes of your easy pace to let your heart rate come back down before doing the next one. Still liking it? The week after that, try THREE strides! Take it all the way up to five or six, but only add one per week. Make sure you leave enough distance on the end of your easy run to finish with a few minutes of your easy pace.

When you get up to six strides at the end of one run, start adding strides one at a time to the end of another easy run per week.

When you get to two days a week of six strides at the end of an easy run, it’s time to consider trying a Tempo Run. That’s another topic for another day, and another blog post.