Run more than that if you want to get faster. Even running slow and increasing your volume (relative to waht it is currently) will make you faster.

How long have you been running?

You're not 'slow' because of your height. Consider a 'short' runner like Mirinda Carfrae. She's just over 5'3" and flies on the run. Check out her marathon time in last week's Kona Ironman. She broke her record from last year, but this year was 14 minutes down leaving T2. Here's one video of her talking about her lack of a running history (she grew up playing basketball). She had to learn proper form. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjLdLH-DaMc

I would keep at it, not doing too much or too little running. Focus on running from your core, leaning forward a bit to let gravity takeover (consider looking at chirunning on YouTube). Lift your knees as soon as you feel your feet kiss the pavement. Try to imagine you are throwing the road behind you with each foot strike. Let your arms swing naturally, even pushing the elbows back with each swing. This action will propel your legs.

Leaning back and letting your feet heel strike in front of your center of gravity will cause you to run slower. To get the right feel, do a few minutes of barefoot running several times a week. When you do this, your body won't let you heel strike because it would be too painful. You should naturally land on your midfoot. Once you got this feel, go back to your running shoes and mimic what you felt when barefoot. If your current shoes are too built up in the heel, you may want to experiment with a different shoe that doesn't have such a pronounced heel.

It is a common misconception that you can only go faster by opening up your stride (overstriding) while maintaining cadence. When your body starts moving quicker, you'll fly more between steps. This will enable you to run faster and your feet will still land underneath your hips.
This will come from speed work and consequent increases in flexibility. Running slow is going for building up the anaerobic engine, but eventually, you'll have to start running fast if you want to run fast.

Rinny is shorter than you and still runs low 6's at Kona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mE_hlcuHRs

More mileage, 15-20 per week is low, search "barry p" Also….not being mean or anything, because I have some pounds to lose….depending on your body structure there might be a bit of room at 140lbs and 5'5" Just a thought. I am off season weight at 160 at 5'9"…I race at 146….10 years ago I used to race at 140. I think now 138-140 would be ideal race weight for me, or possibly the point at which I start losing power on the bike.

Maurice

Couldn't agree with you more, I'm not even trying and I stand at 5f11 and 145-150 pounds and uh I'm take but slow too.

No.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Welch




Also, the current world record holder in the marathon is 5'7"....you don't see many world class marathoners over 6'.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

As other have said, there are plenty example of fast runners who can't claim to have long legs (eg Haile Gebrselassie, 1.65m/5.5, 2:03:59 marathon and an amazing career). Factors that you may consider (in no particular order): technique (eg do you overstride?), flexibility (mainly hip flexors), mileage, training (volume, speed & consistency), weight.

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Francois-Xavier Li @FrancoisLi
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw
http://www.swimrunfrance.fr
http://www.worldofswimrun.com

You are no more slower runner due to your height, than those tall guys with long legs are slower swimmers because their long legs are sinking (another common complaint here). If anything, you got a climber's body. Exploit your strengths and race hilly courses.

Anyway, your problem is 15-20mpw. That's basically no running. That's how much I run in the winter when I'm "not training" or when I'm injured. You need to be running at least twice that. You can't go to 40mpw overnight though. Need to ease into it. Extend your runs by a few minutes until you can comfortably run one hour. Stick with one hour or a little longer during the week (that's 7-8 miles) and add one longer run on weekends. Start that one at one hour too, and make it a few minutes longer every weekend. That's proper run training. :)

it's not uncommon for people who qualify for Boston to have a weekly long run that is as long or longer than your total volume. 15-20 mpw isn't enough if you want to improve your run split (unless those are all fast mile repeats).

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Michael in Fresno
"Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man" V. Corleone

Your height has nothing to do with how fast you're running. Tsegaye Kebede is 5ft 2, 1.57m and runs a 2.04 marathon...



he is the short guy.

Totally, Rini struggles with the same issue. ;)

Or if you prefer;

Totally, but you make up for it with anger.....

Or helpfully; yes at some point/cadence you will need to lengthen your stride to become faster....

To all: I appreciate the fact that there are some successful short runners out there, and I think I probably should clarify my question. I'm not asking if it's a physical IMPOSSIBILITY for me to run fast given my tiny little legs, but certainly it must be more difficult than a tall person?

Thanks to all for the comments on training. I definitely agree that increasing volume would help me (as well as more speed work). I'm deployed right now so time and fidelity of training are an issue - the only location I have to run is a treadmill and I also don't have weekends, so my quality of training has definitely suffered.

But mostly I'm frustrated that even at a meager 10-15 miles a week, I am still slower than my tall counterparts who only run 5-7! They don't even train with a plan, they just get on the treadmill and run a 5k every once in a while and crush me! This must be a physiological issue, right?

Point taken about the weight loss. I'm hoping to get down to 135 during this deployment.

It might be a problem on the bike but never on the run.

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

There is evidence that the taller the swimmer the less drag.

As far as running, small faster strides are more efficient than longer strides. Most distance runners are short, but more importantly light.

So I am 5'5 and 148 so same build but a tad heavier. I think the LSD with no tempo can hurt if you are trying for speed. I was able to boost my speed by doing track workouts and longer tempo runs. Racing a lot helps as well since you have the chance to red line and test your self. Mind you I am not fast, but this has enabled me to PR at 48 years old at a 10k two weeks ago (43:33)' my best since 2005 and have a few sub-7 5ks as well. My time is limited to 3-4 runs per week and one if a long effort (8-12 miles), 2 tempo runs and a track effort (or a 5k race).

Seeing as your deployed, I don't know if that helps, but also don't know what you are training for. Keep in mind, my last 3 HIM I have imploded on the run which I think is partly nutrition but my run volumn in way down from previous years due to being a dad.

Best of luck

If you want to get fast you have to train fast. Get on the track and do some speed/interval work. Do it on a regular basis and focus on technique (high knees, arm swing, full extension of leg during push off, etc).

Watch youtube videos to see the points on technique you need to work on.

Do your homework and focus. You really need to focus on technique during the speed/interval work and you will notice a difference.

It really isn't about going 'hard', its about being smooth, relaxed and 'floating' during that work.

If you start off easy and progress the workouts you should see and feel the difference in about 8 weeks.

Mo Farrah is 5'5".
Meb Keflezighi is 5'5"


But if I'm taking 180 steps/min and not moving fast enough, my only option would be to open my stride, right?
I'm pretty sure that the opposite is true. Being smaller helps you increase cadence and is more efficient in dissipating heat. Both are ingredients to being faster. Another is to simply push off the ground harder.

If I were to guess at your problem, and if you've been around ST long enough you'd already know the answer, is that you aren't running enough. 15-20 mpw is not enough volume to produce any significant gains.

I have a doctor friend who is 5'2. He was a swimmer and had virtually no running through college. When he got into his late 20s, he decided that he was going to lose med school fat and wanted to try and qualify for Boston. He ran. A lot. He never did qualify, only got down to a 3:22 marathon. Then, he started breeding and gave it up.

Don't go through any height enhancing procedures at this time.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

As you get fitter your stride length increases. You don't need to work on this, it is a natural consequence of being fitter.

This is also a misconception. To "go fast," you must open up the hip. When spm is past the mid-180's, there are diminishing returns for the steps/min. Not meaning for this to necessarily be directed at you, but I hear the above statement a lot.

The reason that many misunderstand and misrepresent the 180 myth is that they do not see what is actually happening in relation to the angle of the lower leg at impact at race pace- which is only achieved by "striding out"- however the elites (and "fast" runners who keep injuries down to a minimum) do not try to achieve this by reaching forward with the lower leg like many of us. The initial footstrike is maximized b/c their lumbar/pelvic/hip ROM is much, much better. So when they start reaching into the fast speeds at distance events, they are by definition "overstriding," but they are minimizing stress by keeping the initial footstrike close to COM, and ideally about 4-5 inches.

However, the answer isn't to start increasing ROM in the hip, b/c there is a difference between passive and active ROM (many runners have terrible passive hamstring flexibility, but functionally it's ideal). Plus, there is very limited research to improve ROM means a faster time for distance events...there are much more effective ways to increase the hip ROM for speed.

On the link you provided- hopefully you are not the author of that video. The propulsion forward statements made during late stance to swing phase are incorrect (in addition to a number of other statements), because very little forward propulsion occurs after midstance (and when people try to, they often end up with Achilles and PF issues). This is also why many elites have the appearance of "bouncing" when they run- because they are applying more force from late swing phase to midstance. The majority of runners "fall" into initial impact to midstance, and then try to propel forward from midstance to toe off- which is wrong. Fast/efficient runners power into the midstance, and then use the posterior chain for what it is designed to do- contract only enough to rapidly get the leg off the ground and into the swing phase.

Many "equations" to simplify human performance are misleading (such as "calories in/calories out"), however speed=step rate x step length is relatively spot on. There is also a need to modify the SR part of the equation to account for the diminished returns that are often seen when many go past 180 steps/min. This is why many who adopt the blanket approach of what you're describing do in fact get the speed increase they want (and a alteration in their inj hx if they have some), but then can't continue the positive trend by working on the step length correctly. When people say to land under the hips (which is biomechanically impossible and still run remotely past a 9min/mile pace), it is falling into the same trap that others did 30 years ago by saying 3 different shoe categories would cure injury.

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http://www.reathcon.com

No, you are near the optimal height for a runner. If it helps, I am not quite 5'5" and have a marathon PR of 2:48 with no running background from high school or college. I think your complaint on height would be more valid for cycling, where power output does go up with size/height, and more than aerodynamic drag goes up. Still, there are short cyclists who are successful (I got to Cat 2 level of racer), so this isn't insurmountable. I had a bike fitter tell me once that having long legs relative to height is helpful for both cycling and running, but no idea if this is actually true. All that being said, your issues could easily be physiological. Everyone has a different level of endurance sport talent (regardless of height), and everyone is different with how much training allows them to improve. I was always frustrated as a cyclist when some guy would go from Cat 5 to Pro racer in 3 years, but you can't do anything about this.

I would suggest you lose some weight and train more. When I am at my best as a runner or triathlete I am coming in at sub 120lbs. Imagine how much a 20lb weight vest would slow you down on your run!

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Bump it to 30, many of the best runners in the world are short, but they are born with running talent and run 100 miles per week.

Cycling you might take a little hit on flat courses, but not much, if you focus on getting aero.

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Kat Hunter reports on the San Dimas Stage Race from inside the GC winning team
Aeroweenie.com -Compendium of Aero Data and Knowledge
Freelance sports & outdoors writer Kathryn Hunter

Let's think this through because I think you and I are saying the same thing.
-Keep cadence constant
-Run more (me)
-Which will get you more fit (both)
-Which allows you to push off the ground harder (me)
-Which increases stride length (you)

What I think both you and I are advising the OP is to run more and to not purposefully try to open up his stride.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Short will help in nearly any endurance athletic endeavor outside of swimming and cycling is debatable. Sprinters are tall in running and cycling, but the GC contenders and marathon winners tend to be below average height. The biggest single advantage is your ability to carry less weight around the course and especially up hills.

As others have stated, you are not running enough. Do this over the winter and you will be faster. http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

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