Wanted to gather opinions on how and when people should do strides, and I think the underlying question is why do we do them? Which can lead to answering the how/when (should you do them in base phase? should you have full recovery? should they be all out or at 800m/Mile pace?).
Wanted to gather opinions on how and when people should do strides, and I think the underlying question is why do we do them? Which can lead to answering the how/when (should you do them in base phase? should you have full recovery? should they be all out or at 800m/Mile pace?).
They deliver a neuromuscular response that creates a jump-start effect while also allowing the body to loosen up for a harder effort the following day. Strides shouldn’t be at a set pace; rather, a set effort(I.e, 800 effort, mile effort). Strides should be repeatedly done 2-3 times per week. A walk-back recovery is completely fine but isn’t necessary. A good rule of thumb for recovery is 3 times the stride time amount. So if you have athletes do 6x15s strides, recovery should be roughly 45s.
Wanted to gather opinions on how and when people should do strides, and I think the underlying question is why do we do them? Which can lead to answering the how/when (should you do them in base phase? should you have full recovery? should they be all out or at 800m/Mile pace?).
They deliver a neuromuscular response that creates a jump-start effect while also allowing the body to loosen up for a harder effort the following day. Strides shouldn’t be at a set pace; rather, a set effort(I.e, 800 effort, mile effort). Strides should be repeatedly done 2-3 times per week. A walk-back recovery is completely fine but isn’t necessary. A good rule of thumb for recovery is 3 times the stride time amount. So if you have athletes do 6x15s strides, recovery should be roughly 45s.
In other words, you do strides to practice running fast.
They deliver a neuromuscular response that creates a jump-start effect while also allowing the body to loosen up for a harder effort the following day. Strides shouldn’t be at a set pace; rather, a set effort(I.e, 800 effort, mile effort). Strides should be repeatedly done 2-3 times per week. A walk-back recovery is completely fine but isn’t necessary. A good rule of thumb for recovery is 3 times the stride time amount. So if you have athletes do 6x15s strides, recovery should be roughly 45s.
In other words, you do strides to practice running fast.
In more other words, you do strides to practice striding.
My coach has me varying 6-8 100m strides or 3-4x150m strides most of the time. His instructions are to “pull for pace” meaning I go as fast as my body will reasonably let me go on the day, so if I’m sore and recovering that may look like 800-1500ish pace, and if I’m fresh and ready to roll I might touch as fast of a pace as I can run in trainers.
The idea is to focus on form, experiment a bit with figuring out what mechanics work best while running fast without the punishment of doing so during a hard session. It also builds better running mechanics/economy on a physiological level too, giving you some fast twitch muscle and CNS benefit. There’s also studies that suggest doing multiple short sprints on an almost daily schedule improve your Vo2Max, even though you don’t really challenge your aerobic system that much.
I’m a big big fan of strides. This is where we get anecdotal but doing 100s/150s often seems to have served as a good prerequisite for running fast 200s and 300s with controlled rest, thus allowing me to train to run fast 800s and miles. Speed is key and strides are a good way to get there.
I've always thought there are three main reasons for strides.
1. CNS benefits-The quick hard effort helps get your brain/muscles primed to go. This is why strides are common place for a premeet. I'd be BSing if I tried to go any deeper than that.
2. Range of motion/remember how to run fast-When you spend a lot of time slogging around your form shifts into an alberto shuffle. Strides let your hips open up and they remind you how to run fast. Think strides during base phase.
3. Speed development-Anything that is a more structured sprint effort. Arguably this is no longer a stride but to distance runners anything faster than 800m pace is usually a "stride". Lydiard's hill//speed development phase would be in this category. The goal is self explanator, to develop speed.
Anyone have any thoughts or variations they've used regarding the differences between strides (which are usually thought of as being quick but not all out, and in the 80-100 meter range) as opposed to what is sometimes called top end speed development (flying 30s to 50s)?
I never really thought about it much but in the last mile or two of an easy run I'll split my watch, run hard for 20 seconds, run easy for 50-60 seconds, and do it again 4-8 times twice a week on recovery/easy day. Seems to help stretch out the legs and work the nervous system.
Strides on the whole are there to improve running economy at fast paces. They are best done with fairly short reps (80-150m), low volume (400-800 meters), and adequate recovery (2-3x rep duration minimum). They can be done year-round, and generally it is best to either do them after an aerobic distance run (long or easy runs) to practice running fast while tired, or before a harder session as part of a complete warmup. It is also best to go fast-to-slow. This can be within the rep itself (accelerating up to 80-90% max velocity), over the course of a session (slightly faster each rep), or over the course of an entire macrocycle (typically easy strides in the summer/fall, then structured, fast strides during the track season). I would recommend doing all three if possible.