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Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form
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Where I'm coming from: 61 years old, 5'10", 158#, almost rehab'ed from a moderate (no bruising) calf strain on Sept 14.

just prior to the above injury, I decided to add strides once per week and in hindsight I think they made a contribution to my injury.

My understanding is that strides are short runs at 90% speed, say 100 meters. To do that I ran them on the balls of my feet whereby I could take my final quarter mile speed in a 5k race from a 7:15 pace to a 6:15 pace. But these 6 x 100m strides I ran were not part of a 5k, just strides ran after a 10 minute warm-up and spaced with 100 meter walks (sorry, did I confuse everything?)

In the back of my mind, I think I was emulating the 67 year-old who blew me away in a 400 meter race a few months ago. He was wearing track spikes and I was wearing regular distance running shoes. I can remember from high school if I didn't run on the balls of my feet in track spikes - - a mid-strike would hurt the rest of my foot bc there was/is no padding for the entire sole like there is in running shoes. So I concluded that this old guy had no problem running on the balls of his feet while I was punishing my calves as I did so.

So is it actually more difficult for your calves to keep you up on the balls of your feet if you are NOT wearing track-spike shoes? Could that increased slippage challenge your calves and make them vulnerable? (My calves were definitely sore after that 400 m race but the injury did not happen until 2 days later in a 3 mile easy run at a 9:00 pace.)

I would like to strengthen my calves to lessen the chance of calf re-injury. I have just incorporated a few exercises to do so. But should running strides be part of my workouts? And what running form should I use to run strides? (I can't see wearing track spikes for these workouts). TIA.
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Re: Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form [lombardi3g] [ In reply to ]
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I'm looking for some calf wisdom as well beyond this great summary from an Australian Physio has on this discussion: https://www.pogophysio.com.au/...-strains-in-runners/

For you, stride out are essentially plyometric exercises that require more than 10min warmup if you're over 35 or out of shape... Otherwise very beneficial if your body can cope with them (just like plyometrics)

https://www.strava.com/athletes/nbrowne1
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Re: Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form [lombardi3g] [ In reply to ]
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Track spikes are zero drop. Every show that is not zero drop is like running in high heels. So if you are on your toes on 9mm drop or more shoes that is a lot of strain. And watch top runners like mo Farah closing a 5000m. Even closing the last mile at sub 4 his heel touches down on each stride. Just enough to support his body with his skeleton vs his muscles.
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Re: Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form [lombardi3g] [ In reply to ]
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One thing to watch is the initial acceleration. Rather than accelerating explosively for your stride intervals, if you spread that acceleration over the first 3 or so steps, the peak loading on the muscles is less, while having pretty minimal effect on your overall time over the 100 m interval.
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Re: Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form [lombardi3g] [ In reply to ]
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A few things:

1. Running fast is hard on your joints, muscles, ligaments. Everything takes time to get used to, the harder it is...the more time it takes to adjust. That gets more true as we age. I'm only 52, 5' 11", 145 lbs...but, I still take several weeks to add a full-diet of strides to my routine, when I haven't been doing them for a while. My final goal is 6x30s with 90s rest, added to 3 runs per week. I start with 4x30s added to 2 runs per week. I'll do that for a couple weeks, and then add them to a 3rd run---do that for a couple weeks. Then I'll bump to 5x strides for a couple weeks, and finally 6x strides.

2. I always add my strides to the end of my medium runs, and typically my long run...but, sometimes I'll add them to a short run. Note, I run 6x per week with 2 hard-medium runs, and one long run. If I ran less I'd drop the strides to 2x per week. I do not do them as stand-alone workouts.

3. Strides should be run at about mile pace. You should be running fast, but relaxed....you should not be "spent" at the end of the 30s. As above...I build into a full-paced set of strides over several weeks. I might start at around 5k pace while I add the strides (per #1 above)...then gradually over the weeks build to closer to mile pace.

4. I run "normally", not on my tip-toes/balls-of-my-feet. I'm a mid/fore-foot striker...and I maintain a normal foot-strike while doing strides. I focus on foot speed, eliminating extraneous movements, standing up straight, keeping my feet shoulder width, and my hands/arms relaxed. Everything move fore/aft nothing side-2-side or bouncing up/down.

5. I pay special attention to how I feel in the days after adding strides, increasing the quantity, and pace. If I feel significant tightness or soreness in my calves, feet, quads, etc...then I do not do another set until that has completely gone away....not matter what the schedule says. I may also back it down a notch (less or slower) to give things more time to adapt.

I just went though this exact routine during September...as I hadn't been doing strides all summer. Next week will be the first week I will attempt 3 sets at fast-mile pace.
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Re: Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form [Tom_hampton] [ In reply to ]
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Terrific overview of stride work and wise precautions Tom, thank you very much. How about hill repeats? Do they have a place in your training plan?
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Re: Strides, Old Age, Calf Strain, and Running Form [lombardi3g] [ In reply to ]
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My long run is really a long hilly run. I have a 1.25 mile section of road about 2.5 miles from my house that consists of 4 hills, each of about 5% grade and about 50 ft in elevation gain.

My usual routine is to run over, and do laps through the hills until my legs are "done" then I extend to 12-15 miles total. I charge the hills, and then use the downhill side to work on foot speed. When I'm in good shape I'll hit LTHR+ by the top, and drop back to high z2 by the bottom....and I might manage 7 miles or so if hills in a 15 mile run. At the moment, I'm hitting low z4, and 3.75 miles in 15.

I take a very similar approach to adding these hills in that I do with strides. I add them in gradually, and charge them with increasing intensity week over week. Again looking for pains, or soreness in the 48 hrs following....and adjust accordingly.
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