For the runners that are faster than me (almost all of you), please give me some input.
What do you think about extending your stride to get faster – vs - possible injury? I have a fairly good run base. I’m doing about 30 miles a week this year up from 25 miles a week last year. I have been running with a short gate and fast cadence. (51 yr old; three tris and one - two ½IM each year)
My run speed is slow. I did a hilly 10K yesterday at 53 minutes; and of course I got blown away.
On the long down hills I extended my stride to try and make up some of the time from the long up-hills. I have never run with long strides before. It felt okay and I controlled it so it did not get out of hand. Now I’m thinking the only way I am going to get faster is to extend my stride on a regular basis.
What do you think? What do I need to watch out for (injury)? Or am I not thinking this through correctly?
Thanks.
Cadence X Stride Length = Speed; so I think you know the answer. If you are chopping it up at 180, then increasing stride length is what will make you faster. Just simple mechanics. Hit the track: Short Intervals, striders, pickups, even hills. Stride length is more about strength and to some dgree extensibility. Oversimplified; cadence is close to fixed across a band of speeds (or should be) whereas stride length will vary or certainly more associated with speed changes.
BTW, no offense but at your age; check hip flexor extensibility as well as it will check your attempts to lengthen your stride.
Cheers!
Yep, at some point you have to lengthen the stride to go faster. But keep your stride length appropriate for your pace. In other words, on an easy/recovery day, keep the stride shorter since you’ll be going slower. Don’t try to force a longer stride where it isn’t necessary. Otherwise, play around with different strides and find the most efficient one that seems to allow you to go fastest for any given perceived effort. For me, when I get my stride very long I then slow my cadence a bit and can pull off 6min mile pace over longer distances with what feels like very low effort. It’s like once you get up to speed on a bike and can pretty easily ride in the big chain ring. Use intertia to your advantage.
Also, focus on lengthening your stride behind you and not extending it longer in front of you. You want your footstrike to be more or less under your center of mass. Throwing the forward foot too far out in front may very well increase injury risk.
I’m 54. Yes, a longer stride and quick cadence = speed, but increasing stride length at any age may cuase injury. There are drills to help increase stride length, add them slowly into your program. Maintain what ever flexibility program you are using and watch for any little injury. For me, I get knee injuries when I work on speed/stride length, but a host of other injuries can come up. One day of drills and a day of “faster” work may be plenty at our old age.
Snce you do not say how you get your 30 miles per week, I might say increasing the number of days of runinng and brining your total miles per week up also. PLease search for Run Training - The Program (part 1) by Barry P. I have found it very helpful
whats your cadence?
Thank you all for the good input. I get my 30 miles in at 6 miles per day X 5 days per week. Im not sure what my cadence is. I know its as fast as is practical at my current stride length. I try to build my heart rate so I end up at 170 at the end of the run, with most of the run at 150-160. I was going to leave it a 30 per/week since I am adding a lot of biking now thats its getting nicer outside.
One of the posts talked, about building the stride length behind you - I know exactly what you are saying and I’m glad you stated it. Visualization helps.
It’s interesting how this sport is about levels. You can always improve, always get stronger and faster if you put in the training.
Thanks.
You want to increase your stride length but don’t know your cadence?
Figure that out first.
I know Daniels claims that 180 (90 per leg) strides per minute is the most
efficient. Increasing stride length decreases propulsion time and increases
flight time.
I also know that other people claim that’s bunk.
But without knowing what you’re doing you shouldn’t make changes. Maybe
you’re 100 spm, in which case that seems way slow. Maybe your 220 spm,
in which case it might make sense.
-Jot
I understand what you are saying. I don’t know it exactly. Its around 180. On the treadmill it’s almost exactly 180. I bought some music that I listen to from an exersise sight that had different candence music you can buy. Now that I’m outside running I don’t like to wear the ipod (I want to hear the cars and dogs); so its about 180 +/- a little.
I say increase the stride length. I imagine that at 54, your efficiency is not quite optimal, so perhaps the exact rules for younger runners do not apply as uniformly. With my father (around 58), I see him increasing his stride length to get faster (he’s probably closer to 165 or 170 footfalls/min during races).
Just focus on landing softly, on the midfoot if possible. I really think there is an over-emphasis on chopping to achieve 180 at slower speeds; if you are below 7:30 or 8 during races, definitely go longer stride.*
*p.s. this could all be as accurate as a Sarah Palin speech
Thanks guys - I really appreciate your comments.
I would definitely not try and simply increase your stride length. If your cadence is 180+ and your foot is landing under your hip, or close, especially at your age, trying to reach out and increase your stride length is not a good idea. Your stride length will increase simply by focusing on your forward lean, with your hips in line with your shoulders. Think of leaning from your ankles. If you go on the post here on the Nautica Tri, the photos show wonderful examples of the body aligned nicely, but the speed generated by a forward lean. Nice photos to show the idea. To simply increase your stride length without keeping the other items correct will end up costing you energy and possible injury as well.
On the long down hills I extended my stride to try and make up some of the time from the long up-hills. I have never run with long strides before.
What the others said. Work on making sure your cadence is right, and only then lengthen your stride.
But one thing here concerns me. You specifically point out that you lengthen your stride on the downhills. And that *does *seem like it could be a recipe for injury. Lengthening your stride on flat sections should be fine, but I’d be extra careful on the downhills.
What do others think about longer strides on downhills?
stop worrying about your cadence/stride length. at first i though you were part of the small percentage of people who dont choose the correct stride length/rate. but you do which is good.
worry about running more, and faster not “how to run”
Anytime your foot lands in front of your hips, you are braking. So you don’t want to increase your stride by placing your foot farther out in front of you.
If your happy with your cadence then try increasing your power by running from your hips.
Hard to say awhole lot more in a forum. I would recommend Chi Running (hope I didn’t misspell it).
Wow, I am really surprised at some of the responses. You will get speed alright. What is the most important thing to you, run a faster to only get injured at some point. I overstrided for over 10 years. I would usually get an injury at least 2 times a year. At the time I just thought it was part of running. It takes its toll. Now I have shorten my stride to avoid the braking that will wreck your knees. Lengthening my stride almost put me out of the game completely. Something to think about. Work on increasing your hip flexor strength and cadence. I would strongly not recommend lengthening your stride!
Paul
dgree extensibility and hip extender length.
Could you guys elaborate on this
Keep your cadence 180ish. Longer stride length does not increase speed if the cadence slows AND, it increases contact time, impact, etc. Injuries go up. Also, you go up and down a lot more with slower cadence, so a lot of energy is wasted.
Intervals, hill sprints, hill intervals, acceleration runs really help, but in moderation. Do one longer run per week, one speed day and one hill day per week. The other runs should be easy to moderate. Practice perfect posture. Land with your foot directly under your hip and lean from the ankle. Run with quick, light steps, like your just barely touching the ground in all but your fastest or hilliest segments. And, wear pretty minimal shoes–no big heels. (This may require a little getting used to.)
I am 58. I usually win my AG and I win it on the run. I Q’d for Boston at Kona. I am no expert, but I’m not making this up.
Thanks Dick. Im taking this all in. There are a lot of smart experienced guys/gals on this forum. I think I’m going to strech it out a bit on my stride; slowly. Continue with my stretching. Keep the stride increase behind me (keeping my strike below my center) and do some strength exercises so I can handle the stress on my knees. If I feel any pain or things just don’t feel right I will back off and re-think.
Rethink.
Jack Daniels is no idiot.
if i may add to the conversation. don’t always think of increasing stride legnth as extending the landing foot more in front of you. you can have a longer stride and still have the foot landing in a good place. you don’t need to reach for the landing - that is overstriding.
if you look at the studies of experienced runners at different speeds you see what is often happening is that their ‘flight’ time is increasing and their ground contact time is decreasing. you might look up ‘A Study to Determine the Biomechanicx of Running in Skilled Trackmen’, R. Nelson, and look at some of the differences when they compared 8:00/5:30/4:15 min/mile speeds.
good luck