eurodonkey wrote:
J.O. wrote:You still have to work on your stride length if you want to improve. You seem to be missing this point. Interval training, tempo runs, longs runs etc will only develop this so far. You need some specific stride lengthening work to go beyond your normal limits.
I am intrigued now. Good middle distance runners work on their muscular power in various ways which can increase speed (and thus stride length): heavy weights, Olympic lifts, hill sprints. Does that count?
They also do drills - both bounding and quick/short drills (high knees, heel flicks etc). Are you saying we all need more bounding? Perhaps we should do LESS of the 'frequency drills' as they are done with a shorter stride?
Or are you saying we all need to add in sustained, substantial sessions of bounding and artificially-longer-stride-then-usual runs?
Yes, more of the bounding type stuff. It's easier to do this uphill, but it's important to do it also on the flat and downhill too (which requires a good warm up)
When you do the long bounding strides, you need to do it with a reasonably high level of efficiency, and get faster each time, which will happen naturally.
For example on Tuesday I did 6 x 140m (a nice new strip of tarmac on a quiet country lane near my house)
What I do is count the right foot strides, starting at zero. I did 38 37 35(2.0m) 34 34 and 33 with that last one actually feeling the best of the lot, as it should be, because the stride rate also gets faster and, as you said in your last post, the extra speed allows a longer stride to happen naturally.
This type of session lets you know that your potential for improvement is enormous.