masters runners: how to get power back in stride??

I'm 48, and used to have some wicked speed when I was young (sprinter, decent). Over years and years of distance running I've watched my speed decrease to a crawl. Last year, I made a concerted effort to do strides at the end of at least one of my daily runs (I run a lot of doubles). I felt like shit doing them for about 2 months (just trying to do 2-5 50-100m at something resembling a 5:00/mile pace). It was awful. Then one day it just sort of got easier, and it continues to get better. The added bonus is that most of my mileage runs feel a lot better now too. If you've lost it like I had, just be diligent about working it back. If you haven't lost it, keep working your basic speed. The fear of injury is too overblown in my opinion.

Bum wrote:

I'm 48, and used to have some wicked speed when I was young (sprinter, decent). Over years and years of distance running I've watched my speed decrease to a crawl. Last year, I made a concerted effort to do strides at the end of at least one of my daily runs (I run a lot of doubles). I felt like shit doing them for about 2 months (just trying to do 2-5 50-100m at something resembling a 5:00/mile pace). It was awful. Then one day it just sort of got easier, and it continues to get better. The added bonus is that most of my mileage runs feel a lot better now too. If you've lost it like I had, just be diligent about working it back. If you haven't lost it, keep working your basic speed. The fear of injury is too overblown in my opinion.

I have had a similar experience - doing hill sprints has made me both faster and much more comfortable at 5k race pace.

An old thread.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1356088

Pay attention to the long quotation from John Kellogg, which is from here:

http://www.hillrunner.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach

;topic=3934.0;attach=10

Most Africans work hard on speed work.

We are talking about master runners not high school runners.[/quote]

I don't know much[/quote]

This I do agree with you 100%

When doing hill strides, incorporate slightly downhill (decline) strides for full range stride extension. Also doing flat strides with a strong tailwind helps as well.

these responses are very helpful. many recommendations for doing hills, so that i will do. there is a big one right out my front door!

i also like the idea of doing a bit of sprinting, making sure to start slowly.

"Most Africans" are not runners. If we look at the elite African runners, there's a huge sample bias there - these are folks who've selected out through a long pipeline for their ability to train hard without injury. And it's not even clear how many of them are running at 48, like the OP.

Let me give you a gymnastics analogy with made up numbers: let's say some Romanian coach has a training regimen that will cripple nine girls for every one champion it creates. You only see the champion, and you think "oh, let me train like she did." But you don't see the nine crippled girls. So your odds of being crippled, as opposed to becoming a champion, are pretty high. Even more so because you are a lot older than those girls, and that training regimen isn't adult-appropriate at all.

that is good advice 'not so fast!'. that is why hill repeats seem appealing. hard running with less chance of injury.

i guess i wonder how much speed is sacrificed by having a limited range of motion in my hips, or at least what feels like a limited range of motion. and what feels like a lack of power, which is what i was getting at in the original post.

most of us that are old, say over 45, can relate to a feeling of awe and longing when seeing a young runner with a powerful stride. what i'm hearing is that there are training strategies to regain some of that power. of course some of it is gone for good.

Do hills and weights. I can still sprint well at age 50. Of course I'm not as fast as I was "back in the day" but I have power and a long flexible stride.

And I stretch thoroughly after every workout, both static and dynamic. Try a Bikram (hot) yoga class.

I'm with the guy who said he did 3-5 50-100m strides almost daily starting at only a moderately fast pace until it got easier. Hills are a good idea, too, though I think you also have to build into them very slowly. I am not over 40, but I suspect many of the people recommending something resembling the short, all out hill sprint are not 40+ either. It's a relatively recently wide-spread popular training element. Not to say there aren't examples of people doing this stuff a serious while back (Coe, for instance), but just that it's gotten popular recently. Jumping into all out hill sprints makes you sore when you are a college kid. It will probably be a bad idea for you. Building up very slowly--that sounds helpful. Really, there is more than one way to define the parameters of frequent, short duration, high intensity training.

Another thing to consider, with the debate going on between static/active stretching, etc, is that running faster requires a larger range of motion naturally. The closer you're getting to a sprint, the more your hips are going to extend and flex. That said, if you say you have a very high stride rate, your natural impulse might just be to run like a water lizard when you start to go faster. Still, your ROM will increase, but resist that urge. The best way to do this is not to reach with your lead leg trying to cover more ground, but just trying to put more force in the backward direction while your foot is on the ground. In this sense, I think a mixture between flat and hills (or even gradual downhills, as one poster suggested) will help your body stumble upon the slightly more efficient sprinting form it is capable of. (Aka learn a pattern of muscle recruitment). Think of it this way: when your glute fires really hard when your foot hits the ground, your hip is going to extend more (the femur of your contact leg will be at a great angle behind you). Your leg isn't going to extend backward without the other leg matching its movement (unless there is something seriously wrong with your stride). So, your knee will come up higher. It won't happen over night, but if you keep with it, it will improve.

That said, I know that plenty of studies say static stretching is worthless. But all the ballet dancers I've ever known have stretched extremely frequently and diligently to maintain their flexibility, and personally I've increased my range of motion by prolonged static stretching (20 minutes of sustained light stretching daily). Usually studies on stretching for runners don't actually focus on whether it has anything to do with range of motion. I remember at least one study that claimed to show that increases in range of motion led to decreased running performance. Most runners don't and probably shouldn't stretch for increased range of motion, but I think it is possible to do and that sometimes it needs to be done.

Good luck.

running fast = greater ROM wrote:

I'm with the guy who said he did 3-5 50-100m strides almost daily starting at only a moderately fast pace until it got easier. Hills are a good idea, too, though I am not over 40, but I suspect many of the people recommending something resembling the short, all out hill sprint are not 40+ either.

We see that!!

Good luck.

In my late 40s, I noticed that I seemed weaker overall, and that running, by itself, didn't seem to restore a feeling of strength, even in the lower extremities. I started doing more weight training with the "basic" barbell strength movements that engage several large muscle groups, particularly deadlifts and squats, with relatively low repetitions per set (typically, about five reps per set). I don't know whether it's helped my running -- at least, when compared with the benefit from additional miles that I could be putting in on the trail -- but that's not really my focus anymore. I'm primarily interested in being a good animal, and I think that weight training, emphasizing the "basic" strength movements, is very useful for the muscles, connective tissue, and bones of older runners. (I should note, by the way, that my body is very ill-suited to full squats. I'm tall and thin, with a lifetime of bad posture and a combination of poor flexibility and balance that makes full squats devilishly difficult to do. That's part of the reason I do them.)

If I were trying to do it all through running, I'd probably be running lots of hills.

Bounce!

Hills, drills, range of motion exercises. Kinda like when older folks move out of houses with stairs and go to the ramblers. They start losing the ability to get up and down stairs.

The bouncing aint as high & far as it used to be, but I still bounce when I can.

I'm a sprinter and hurdler, not a distance runner but here is my 2 cents: Weights, hills, drills, and plyos. Be very careful with the hills and plyos. Carefully and gradually incorporate them into your training. I also stretch thoroughly. Flexible groin, hips, quads, flexors, and hams will help you naturally lengthen your stride. I'm 50 years old and can do a right leg split only a few inches from the ground. Concentrate on exercises that increase the force of your push off against the ground. The stronger your push off, the longer your stride.

why do I get so mad when people advocate stretching for runners? Maybe it works for some people. Maybe scientists just haven't yet found the positive impact it has on runners.

I get just as frustrated at stretching advocates as I do religious people. These are two completely non-scientific, irrational belief systems which let people get through the day. So why does my head hurt when I read again someone advocating stretching.

I'm going to have a drink now.

I'm 44 and was not happy with my speed (and power, I guess). I bought the Hudson book which led me to the hill sprints. I think I was really making a difference and hurt my hamstring and backed off for a few months. I have been back with a more regular combo of hill sprints and 100's a few times a week, and I think it is making a big difference.

6-8 (steep) hill sprints, 10 sec, with full recovery downhill

6-18 100's on grass or astro turf

ahck wrote:

why do I get so mad when people advocate stretching for runners? Maybe it works for some people. Maybe scientists just haven't yet found the positive impact it has on runners.

I get just as frustrated at stretching advocates as I do religious people. These are two completely non-scientific, irrational belief systems which let people get through the day. So why does my head hurt when I read again someone advocating stretching.

I'm going to have a drink now.

Age group Am rec holder advocated stretching in that post, junior.