Why can't I get my stride rate to 180/min.?

Of course they may be individual differences, but in almost every case faster runners have lower ground contact time. I have been a college coach for ten years and I witness a stark difference in ground contact time between my best runners and the average runners on the team.

Also, you can't expect to make a change in form and have it immediately become more efficient. It may take weeks or months to become accustomed to the change. When you change your form you have to re-wire your neuromuscular system and that takes time. It would be more accurate to test with a heartrate monitor with current form and then test again weeks later and becoming accustomed to the new form.

Ground contact time wrote:

Stride rate really isn't the issue. It is just a symptom. Something that all elite athletes have in common is low ground contact time.

Yes, this has been my experience, too.

I coached women for decades, and often wondered why my athletes--even pretty good ones--generally looked as though they were running with Velcro on the soles of their shoes. Compared to high-level runners, mine weren't just running slower; they were running *differently*. It just always looked as though they were pulling their feet off the ground with every step, rather than "touch-and-go"ing.

Not to beat the subject to death, but in retrospect I wish I'd been more systematic about developing their leg strength. Even though I'd seen the Eastern European research--which indicated that the biggest difference between the performances of women and men, in *every* event, was in strength--I still tended to stick with the conventional, more-mileage training.

An hour of lifting each week would have helped them more than the extra ~8 miles that they ran during that time. Ah, well: "too soon old, too late smart."

lease wrote:

An hour of lifting each week would have helped them more than the extra ~8 miles that they ran during that time.

I think you still don't know what you're doing.

Lifting has very little relationship with running. An hour a week would only help with (maybe 5%) cross over effects. The other 95% would detract and hurt their running.

A slow extra 8 miles is not the same as running sprints up a hill, or 400's and 200's at the end of a session. These would be better choices than screwing up the athlete's physiques.

Brian wrote:

Wear a HRM on the mill and play around with these form changes at a given pace and see if they lower your HR. If they don't, then they aren't more efficient for you. Perhaps they would be if you could adapt to them, though, but I still think it is a live discussion.

Great point! I found that with a lower arm carriage (closer to belly button rather that a bit higher) my hr was 2-4 beats lower on average.

Not a huge difference, but a very interesting one for me.

Two suggestions: you can get a little digital metronome for perhaps 15 dollars. When you watch races on TV or Runnerspace or youtube, set it at 180bpm, and you will be astonished at how close this is. You can also do running drills to its audible beat,which you can set at increasing increments as you get more comfortable, then transition to doing tempo runs to it, then recovery jogs.

Second suggestion: Jump rope. This trains your proprioceptive skills to landing midfoot. Heel-striking and attendant overstriding/sinking/rising running action build delay into the stance phase of the gait cycle, slowing the whole thing down. Work up to jumping rope at 180 or faster.

Ground contact time wrote:

Of course they may be individual differences, but in almost every case faster runners have lower ground contact time. I have been a college coach for ten years and I witness a stark difference in ground contact time between my best runners and the average runners on the team.

So what is the best way for an average runner (mid 30s, 16:xx 5k) to reduce their ground contact time?

Drills? strides? Jump rope?

Please give some recommendations to develop your holy grail.

say huh? wrote:

Ground contact time wrote:

Of course they may be individual differences, but in almost every case faster runners have lower ground contact time. I have been a college coach for ten years and I witness a stark difference in ground contact time between my best runners and the average runners on the team.

So what is the best way for an average runner (mid 30s, 16:xx 5k) to reduce their ground contact time?

Drills? strides? Jump rope?

Please give some recommendations to develop your holy grail.

He need a speed endurance development program.

You write about lifting as if it's one specific activity. There are limitless variations of lifts one can perform. Also, consider the individual. Someone who already has a good amount of muscular strength might not benefit so much, but a high volume program might benefit them as a form of cross training. Someone with a weakness, especially in their core or legs, will benefit from strengthening that link in the chain.

/// wrote:

For me the value of trying to get to 180 is simply about getting off my heels and getting more mid-foot strike

100% agree.