Why do my quads lock up on long runs and tempos?

When was your last physical?

Diet?

Current mileage?

Injured?

Workouts?

Recovery?

Also, you shouldn't go to failure in the gym. Just go to that rep with bad form.

This has happened since I started running about two years ago, regardless of mileage or workouts. It just occurs on long runs and long intervals slower than about 80sec/400m, so a bit slower than mile pace. The only other factor I've noticed that causes it is a lot of steep downhill running, which would make sense.

And I don't go to failure with weights, I do just enough so that the last rep is the one with bad form.

hurtlocker wrote:

And I don't go to failure with weights, I do just enough so that the last rep is the one with bad form.

We have found the problem!

By running and lifting, you are overworking those muscles.

Barr Trail........ wrote:

By running and lifting, you are overworking those muscles.

I should clarify that I rarely actually do squats and have never done them on a very consistent basis....my using the squat analogy in the OP seems to have confused some people.

You don't have the extra Kipchoge Quad Striations

In order to get them you need to

Run 80-140 miles a week for 10 years and inject epo straight into your nutsack 1x per day.

Could be your particular mechanics are overworking your quads. This can happen to people who run a lot of easy distance as the easy run stride can often devolve into a sort of plodding on your quads. Then when you try to speed it up you are sort of using this stride but at a higher cadence. You need to learn to run with your hamstrings. Do some really fast sprints/build-up's every so often and work on developing your core(specifically obliques and back which are often overlooked).

Could also conceivably be diet related. If your limiting point is consistently a cramping effect you may have a variety of issues with your diet. Most likely you are not getting enough electrolytes like magnesium, potassium, or calcium. You could also potentially be eating too little. Also, could be medication related or maybe you are drinking too much coffee and depleting your electrolytes. Either way eat more fruits and vegetables.

HatefulRemarks wrote:

Could be your particular mechanics are overworking your quads. This can happen to people who run a lot of easy distance as the easy run stride can often devolve into a sort of plodding on your quads. Then when you try to speed it up you are sort of using this stride but at a higher cadence. You need to learn to run with your hamstrings. Do some really fast sprints/build-up's every so often and work on developing your core(specifically obliques and back which are often overlooked).

This would make some sense in my case. I run with a midfoot strike and land with pretty much underneath my center mass with my knee bent before pushing off, and it does seem like this could be kinda hard on the quads. Then again, I used to overstride really badly before switching to midfoot, and the same problem still came up.

How exactly do you "run with your hamstrings"? Would that be like landing ahead of your torso and pulling backwards instead of pushing?