Benefit of strides?

If you don't train an ability it decreases. Strides are a way to work on coordination necessary to run fast without piling on fatigue during periods when you are racing less frequently.

1) helps to "maintain" touch with your speed.

2) helps with injury prevention. striding puts your body through different mechanics and stresses, which will help make your body stronger. If don't do any striding your body will have a harder time adjusting to workouts because it is not used to the higher impacts, change in ROM, use of more muscle force, etc.

I'll open up my research to you so you can see it's accurate.

Yes, you're right. I need to get a senior research fellow or someone to guide me to make sure it's done right.

Here's an old post of mine on some of the benefits of strides and proper protocol for them:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&thread=4409316&id=4410961#4410961

Don't do hard race pace workouts (e.g., 8 x 400 at mile race pace or 6 x 1,000 at 5,000 pace) during off-season base work. When a workout like that would normally be scheduled during the meat of a competitive season, for a summer "workout," just do 2-3 sets of 5-6 strides per set with an easy 1 minute or so jog between reps and an easy 5-8 minutes of jogging between sets, and run the gamut of speeds between 1,500 race pace and 5,000 race pace on the strides (going from slowest to fastest within each set). Count that as a "hard" day and go completely easy again for at least a day before doing something like slightly faster-paced aerobic work in the form of a spontaneous progression run.

Do not do strides on an easy day that comes between two stronger effort days. Recover those energy systems as completely as possible by keeping the run gentle throughout. Don't worry - your body won't "forget how to run fast" just because you go super easy with no strides several days per week ... as long as you do something about speed maintenance on the other days. If there are two or more easy days between faster efforts, do a few strides at the end of the last easy day.

I have coached for over a decade and have used strides only a handful of times- and actually the only times I have used them are in place of an actual workout where maybe we're just too tired to have a productive session.

1.) They do not help with speed. Most people are doing 100m strides at 3k...maybe 800m pace. That's not speed work. 4x50m all-out w/ long rests is speed work.

2.) Not buying the previous poster who mentioned "strength". If you're talking steep hill strides...I could buy that argument.

Strides *probably* help w/ mechanical maintenance, but when most people are only doing 600-800m worth, I doubt it.

i don't believe in strides wrote:

I have coached for over a decade and have used strides only a handful of times- and actually the only times I have used them are in place of an actual workout where maybe we're just too tired to have a productive session.

1.) They do not help with speed. Most people are doing 100m strides at 3k...maybe 800m pace. That's not speed work. 4x50m all-out w/ long rests is speed work.

2.) Not buying the previous poster who mentioned "strength". If you're talking steep hill strides...I could buy that argument.

Strides *probably* help w/ mechanical maintenance, but when most people are only doing 600-800m worth, I doubt it.

A whole decade.

They aren't speed work or a substitute for anything. It's just an exercise to avoid getting "stuck" in whatever your training pace may be. It's supplementary. More akin to a drill than anything.

Strides are for promoting full rom and proper mechanics without needing to do a hard workout. Lots of mileage makes you tight. The lack of rom will make you slower when you try to open it up later. Strides help bridge that go between speed work and base work.

i don't believe in strides wrote:

I have coached for over a decade and have used strides only a handful of times- and actually the only times I have used them are in place of an actual workout where maybe we're just too tired to have a productive session.

1.) They do not help with speed. Most people are doing 100m strides at 3k...maybe 800m pace. That's not speed work. 4x50m all-out w/ long rests is speed work.

2.) Not buying the previous poster who mentioned "strength". If you're talking steep hill strides...I could buy that argument.

Strides *probably* help w/ mechanical maintenance, but when most people are only doing 600-800m worth, I doubt it.

Compare typical base mileage pace to 800m or even 3k pace. It's still speed.

It is appropriate to train at EVERY pace at somepoint in EVERYONE'S training. Training design is deciding when to run certain paces and how much.

Strides are typically faster and shorter reps done after long, moderate or easy continuous runs. Often strides are prescribed when the volume of "workouts" is lower.

The term strides can have different meanings to different people.

Benefits have been mentioned throughout the post. Benefits are indivdual based on what other things you are doing, or not doing in your training. If you already have a well rounded training program that includes lifting, sprinting, light plyometrics, range of motion activities, then strides may have little additional benefit. But if you typically just get out the door and "go for a run" most days of the week, then strides could have significant benefits.

3 Olympic Golds and 2 World Records and Peter Snell was asked if there was anything different he would have done during base training. "More strides" he said.

According to the RRCA course manual behind me, strides

- Promote good form

- Exercise fast-twitch fibers

They're essential during your base phase when you're not doing a lot of speed-work, or if you're a slower runner training for a marathon and only doing speed-work once a week.

Why has nobody mentioned muscular coordination and efficiency?

For every muscle that pulls you in one direction, you have an opposite muscle that pulls in the other direction. Bicep to tricep, shin to calf, hamstring to quad, etc. I am being pretty general with those muscle groups but you get the idea.

Bicep to tricep is easy to explain. When you curl your arm, you are using your bicep mainly. BUT, because neuromuscular coordination is not perfect, your tricep slightly contracts and slightly inhibits the bicep. With enough use and continued curls for days, weeks, months, your body learns to be more efficient and adapt. When the arm curls and the bicep contracts, your neuromuscular system will be taught to contract the tricep less.

By performing strides at race pace or above race pace, you are teaching your neuromuscular system to operate smoothly and efficiently. In your full stride, every muscle contracts for a specific amount of time, with a specific amount of force. You are teaching yourself to move at that same pace, but with less energy.

Your body is always looking for ways to use less energy. The more you perform a specific range of motion or task, the more your body will teach itself to do it efficiently.

In running, we use strides for this purpose. 100 to 150m strides are not taxing on the aerobic or anaerobic system, but allow the neuromuscular system to work.

Then it is up to you in fast intervals/track intervals to take that coordination, combine it with stresses to the aerobic/anaerobic system to produce faster race resutls.