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More efficient running style

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Tortoise198 May 2014 9:02am, 16 May 2014 50 posts	Quote Pin Tortoise198 Any ideas on how to lengthen your stride and become a bit faster. I just can't seem to do it. I joined a running club but was really rubbish. Short stride around a 400m track not great I often wonder if being a good runner is down to a bit of natural ability, good VO2 max and training. Somehow I think I could train for ever and still be a one pace runner.
daviec May 2014 1:05pm, 16 May 2014 4,161 posts	Quote Pin daviec Don't make any attempt to lengthen your stride. Run lots of miles at an easy effort and your pace will increase as your fitness does.
Canute May 2014 8:43pm, 16 May 2014 976 posts	Quote Pin Canute Lots of slow running will take you along way and will make you moderately fast up to a point. Whether or not you want to run any faster depends on your goals. To achieve your best possible performance at events up to marathon distance, you will probably eventually need to do some high intensity training. Many males get most value from slower training in the early years of running. Slow running works well for most males because their limiting problem is lack of aerobic fitness. Lots of slow running seems to work less well from some females. I think this might be because they are limited by low leg muscle power. The explanation is a bit technical, but if you are interested, here goes: To achieve an efficient long stride you need to get airborne, and this requires powerful legs. If you lack leg muscle power, the main way you increase pace is by increasing cadence (steps / minute). Although a fast cadence does not require as much strength as getting airborne, a very high cadence does require a lot of energy simply to move your legs forwards relative to your torso on each stride. As an elderly person with deteriorating power in my leg muscles, I find that I need to increase cadence to over 200 steps per minute to achieve 5 min/Km (8 min/mile). Almost certainly this is inefficient, so I am working on increasing my leg muscle power. I do not consciously increase stride when I run. My stride will almost certainly lengthen if my leg muscle power increases. Back to the less technical stuff: If you are running with a low cadence, you can increase you speed by increasing cadence. If this makes you too breathless, you need to do more slow running to improve your aerobic fitness. In the unlikely situation that your legs are already turning over very rapidly (eg faster than 200 steps/min even at moderate paces) you are likely to benefit from increasing your stride length. You might best achieve this by working on leg muscle power – for example by regular hopping and skipping; but not by reaching forward with your swinging leg when running .
Jhuff May 2014 2:36pm, 17 May 2014 3,741 posts	Quote Pin Jhuff Tortoise, Your problem is most likely a combination of perception and physical ability. Most people can improve both over time to allow faster running. To get the best out of you, working with a knowledgeable coach or mentor would be best.
Komodo May 2014 9:26pm, 20 May 2014 7 posts	Quote Pin Komodo Canute like your posts as an older woman 57 understand where you are coming from! Have plenty of aerobic fitness just need to get those legs moving faster!! They are strong but not twitching fast enough or something! I am in a club and it can be frustrating because what works for the youngsters (30-40) in terms of improvement doesn't work for me. That's which I like Parkrun because of the age related gradings!
Canute May 2014 4:40pm, 21 May 2014 983 posts	Quote Pin Canute Komodo It might be worth trying Pete Magill’s excellent running drills. They include various hopping and skipping drills. They were originally posted on Pete’s ’Younger Legs for Older Runners’ site but that site is now inactive This link looks promising but when I tried it only led to Blip, and some noisy unwanted adverts. runnersworld.com If anyone know of any other link to video clip demonstrating the drills it would be great to recover it. There are other similar drills but Pete Magill’s were the best I was aware of.
tipsku May 2014 8:31pm, 23 May 2014 221 posts	Quote Pin tipsku Thanks Canute for the technical explanation. I'm a reasonably fit marathon runner but I struggle to get my 5k times down. I knew that i needed to work on cadence so I've trained myself up to about 183-185 average for races while in interval training I can get it up to about 190. I think that's more or less it, much faster is not going to be possible, as efficiency decreases with even higher cadence, as you pointed out above. I've found it very interesting what you said about the limiting factors for men and women, aerobic capability vs. leg power. Until now I've focused on lots of slow miles but I think I need to work on leg power to shift those 5k times. I've done a few HIIT sessions (on hills and on the flat) and I think I'll also have to do more tempo runs at race paces to get my legs used to the higher intensity. What are your thoughts on stair running? I don't worry about stride length too much. As you said, once you have more leg power you'll have more time in the air so it'll increase automatically. Trying to lengthen the stride by reaching forward with the leg (over-striding) can lead to shin splints. So I'm going to focus on leg power in the months to come.
Kieren May 2014 7:54pm, 26 May 2014 3,734 posts	Quote Pin Kieren In regards to the squats, if you are squatting mid-back, you cant really do "ass-to-grass" but you still get a full range of motion to the hamstring. Personally I prefer midback squat to high back, where you can get ass-to-grass. Both methods are valid & great but for me, the forward lean of mid-back makes me less inclinded to overload and more empathis is placed on the hamstrings which (for me at least) are underdeveloped when compared to my quads. You can read about some of the differences at the following link: 70sbig.com
FR Jul 2014 8:03pm, 11 Jul 2014 1,988 posts	Quote Pin FR Just a thought? Is running slowly and running loads of miles possibly the worst thing you can do if your goal is to run with good form? Isn't the best way to try and get the best you can be at a short distance, emphasising quality, not quantity and also concentrating on drills. With the overriding aim to train good efficient muscle memory? Running loads of miles with poor form possibly trains the muscles to perform inefficiently? I can just imagine Jeremy having a chuckle?
Canute Jul 2014 8:47pm, 11 Jul 2014 1,010 posts	Quote Pin Canute I suspect that plodding mindlessly for miles and miles is not much good for either aerobic fitness or running form. Whatever the pace, there is no need to run ‘mindlessly’. When I am running easily, I simply enjoy focussing on the action of running and breathing. This is especially satisfying at a ‘good aerobic pace’ (the pace recommended by Lydiard for ‘quarter pace’ runs; perhaps a little faster than MAF pace.) If I am exhausted in the later stages of a very long run, focussing on maintaining good form is an interesting challenge, and usually better for morale than thinking about how much further there is to run.