Stride Rate in relation to fatigue

4 strides per minute less than normal?

If you were able to count your strides that way no wonder you ran cruddy.

I think you are onto something here. But, I'd like to put a little different perspective on the stride rate thing. Check out the video of Webb beating lagat in the mile that was held before the US Champs (Rome maybe?). When he blows by Lagat the last 90 meters it is his turnover that increases dramatically, not his stirde length. He is actually hitting a phenomenal 250 or so strides a minute. Check it out if you don't believe me. Watch how when they are coming through the last turn they are striding at the same time. When Webb hits the gas he gets almost three strides for every two for Lagat. He goes from approx 210 strides/min to over 250. Could it be that turning it over quicker is a more efficient way of accelerating in a race. From the way Webb has ran this season it would seem so. I have also noticed that at state high school championships the winners usually run around 180 strides per minute. At NCAA's the top athletes are in the 195 range. Watch any pro race and count strides and you will see that a good majority are comfortably in the 205-215 range. It would be intersting to see how the stride lengths compare between the three groups. This data is obviously quite untested, but holds true very often. Maybe the stride rate thing is something that needs to be revisited. Comments and opinions on this would be great as well as stuff for the original post. I know they seem a bit unrelated, but I think it they might be similar issues.

Most likely this phenomenon has to do with changing recruitment patterns as you fatigue and deplete your active muscle. Slower stride for a pace typically means more FT involvement, which works best in higher units of power, especially for slower speeds.

My guess is your ST fiber just needed a day off.

At the top end, turnover actually increases, while stride length actually falls.

That's a very good point. I counted about 210 steps/min in the middle of Webb's recent 3:30 1500m. I didn't realize he had the ability to accelerate even further over the last 100m. The other time I counted steps was Geb's half-marathon in Arizona. I counted 192 steps/min on average throughout the entire race.

For what it's worth, in my own running, my stride rate also declines 5 steps/min when I'm fatigued. And it's not too hard to count -- that's about 2 fewer steps per 100m at 5:20 pace.