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WORKOUT OF THE WEEK: Strides

What is the workout?

Strides aren't a workout per se, more like an addendum to your regular running schedule. Typically you'll finish up an easy or normal run with 4-10 strides of 80-120 meters. So what's a stride? It's a short sprint at sub-maximal effort (somewhere between 80 and 120 meters; doesn't have to be exact, just eyeball it) followed by full recovery between reps (about a minute or so walking around; again, doesn't have to be exact, just feel fresh before your next one). This is all done by feel...run at a relaxed-fast, near effortless speed; no straining, no flailing, no racing. Don't worry about splits, don't worry about pace; just run smooth so you can feel fast and focus on solid form. Think of these like the running version of free-throw practice. (Edit: if you really wanted to, you could make strides a stand-alone workout: warm up, then run 10-30-ish strides with full recovery, then cool down.)

Why should you do it?

You should do strides because they reinforce efficient running technique, develop neuromuscular coordination, and prep your body to stay relaxed at fast speeds. In short, you can't run fast without practicing running fast. I mean, like, well duh, but you'd be surprised how many people rarely practice relaxed-fast running and then wonder why thy struggle to race as fast as they want to. High school and college runners should be darn familiar with strides, but for some reason very few adult runners (citizen runners, age groupers, rec runners, training program members; whatever you want to call the masses) ever do them. These are also the people who stand the most to gain from doing strides...typically they do most of their training at the same average pace, so adding in any change of pace will pay huge dividends. By practicing running fast and smooth, you'll develop strength and coordination that will not only make you faster, but also help prevent injuries.

When should you do it?

All the time. Seriously. At the very least, much more than you're doing now. The awesome thing is that you can and should be doing strides during every phase of your training schedule: base training, competition season, and every time in between. Strides should ideally be done the day before a workout or race, since they prime the nervous system for fast running, but they can really be done any day of the week (including after the occasional long run). That said, don't do strides on a scheduled recovery day; those days are for the purpose of regeneration, so don't run too fast at that time.

So you want to start racing faster? Want to run more efficiently, more injury-free? Start running strides. Or keep running strides. Or run them more than you're doing now. Point being: don't neglect fast relaxed speed.

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