best way to do strides

left right left right

Ease into them. First one at maybe 5k-3k race pace, working your way down to 800 pace. 4-6 should do it. Take enough rest so you feel recovered.

yes, what e-man said. I'll add strides if just for the body to remember what it's like to run fast, not to lose the speed while building base. Just short and sweet is the best way. You got intervals during intervals part of your training to run sustained fast. If you're Frank Shorter type training the weekly mix you don't need strides.

I sprint the straights and jog the turns in the outside lane to insure plenty of recovery time.

If you're a distance person, focus on increasing the tempo, rather than the stride, as you speed up on these.

I think that's why my college's coach called them "pickups," as in pick up the tempo, rather than "strides"--which some people interprest as a deliberate lengthening of the stride.

(As you get toward top speed, your steps probably *will* lengthen a bit, but it shouldn't be anything that you're consciously making happen. Think turnover--frequency of steps--instead. Same thing if you run strides on a very slight downhill: focus on increasing tempo and keep the feet under/behind you, rather than reaching forward with the foot.)