Strides

As a Coach for the last 30 years I sometimes take it for granted that when I start Coaching a new athlete and place within their schedule the word “strides” that they automatically understand what I mean.

My explanation for strides? Why strides? Is as follows:

WHAT ARE THEY?
Strides are approximately 100m or 20 seconds in duration where you run at your percieved mile pace /effort, so approximately 85-90% effort. They are not 100% sprints rather a more controlled faster effort.

HOW SHOULD YOY RUN THEM?
After your warm up run or easier session. Take a few minutes to focus on areas that were tight in the warm up run/session and do some light stretching to ease these out.

Begin your stride by easing into a fast pace in the initial 25 metres. It is important that you do not accelerate too quickly so as to avoid any injury.

In the next 25 metres you should have reached full speed and can now focus on staying relaxed at a faster pace and letting your body do the work. Focus on posture, keeping relaxed ,controlled not flailing arms, being more on your toes not your heels.

Focus on staying relaxed at your stride pace and then gradually in the last 20 metres ease your speed down to a stop.
 

AFTER AN EASY RECOVERY RUN
Strides help you work on your mechanics in short efforts over a 100m. It’s a lot easier to focus on form when your not overly tired.

It helps you to think about how you’re running ,on your toes and feeling relaxed . Making faster running feel like a more natural process for the body. For those athletes running longer distances it’s a great opportunity to inject some speed work into the training plan. With so much of the training focusing on slower speeds to build aerobic systems. By putting some strides into the training schedule you are able to incorporate some speedwork without sacrificing a whole day of training.

AS PART OF A WARM UP FOR A FASTER SESSION OR RACE
Strides are great as part of the warm up to faster more intense training.  After an easy jog strides are a gentle introduction for the body to get used to the feeling of running faster.

WITHIN MARATHON TRAINING
Strides serve as a great way to stretch out the legs after an easy session. It’s often the case within Marathon training that the legs can get stale with the mileage and the tempo runs. Strides help to break this up and give more variety to the training.

There’s nothing better than after an easier session. Striding out, stretching the legs ,getting up on your toes and feeling relaxed. Perfect.
 

So why not start incorporating strides into your weekly schedule. You can see that there are a number of benefits to be seen from incorporating this stealth speed work. Look at your standard week and see where you can incorporate this short but very beneficial addition to your weekly programme.