How do YOU do strides

Nobody has mentioned the part where you accelerate slowly and steadily up to top speed. For me, it's 50m of acceleration and 50m of top speed. Top speed is not all out sprint, but more like 200m interval pace.

I should probably do more of them. I do them before races but not often before workouts.

I do add them after easy days once a week or so. 4/5 10 second total including a build up to near or top speed.

I do strides after most quality runs (anything faster than an easy jog), before sessions to wake my legs up, and after my long run. Usually 4 - 6 runs of 70 - 110 metres, starting fairly aggressively but quickly settling into a decent pace. Ease right down and walk back, so maybe 2 mins between each stride. Focus is on form and relaxation at speed - not the speed itself.

I do strides 1-2 times a week for the first few weeks of marathon training and increase that number to 3-4 times a week before the event. I do them at the end of easy days and sometimes during the last part of a long run. Seems to work for me.

In high school we would do 150 meter strides. Start slowly, as if walking, and gradually add speed until you are at full sprint by the time you hit 130-150. We would hit the 50 meter mark still going pretty slowly compared to a sprint. Usually 3 after a workout.

Doing pretty well. And yourself?

How do YOU do it? wrote:

Seems like everybody has their own interpretation of what strides are and how they do them. Some even call them striders. What exactly do you do?

How long (time or distance), how fast (top speed), how many, what recovery between, when (at the end/middle of run, before/after cooldown jog..), anything else i missed?

Freshman at DII school here. In high school I ran strides at least 3 times a week. I would usually do 6-10x100m starting at mile pace and working down to 400m pace. During track season I would sometimes do 4-6x120 or 3-5x150 instead. The rest is whatever I want it to be, usually around 60-90s if I had to guess. Sometimes 2:00. I believe strides are for speed/coordination/running economy development, so the rest should be long so you can go fast and be smooth on every single one. If you are breaking down doing strides or having to dig you should probably do less or have longer rests. I would do 2-4 more relaxed strides before workouts. 100-200m strides slower than mile pace don't seem necessary to me. If you want to work 5k pace running economy, why not just do some relaxed 300s or 400s with decent rest? Oh also, I sometimes did 4-8 strides after aerobically based workouts (tempos, progression runs, long intervals).

College has been different so far. We do 2-4 relaxed strides (maybe mile pace) before workouts, which is similar to what I did in high school. But after easy/training runs we only do 4x100m. But we always do them barefoot and fast. We go 400-600 pace the first 2 and then basically race the last 2. Even though we race we all stay pretty relaxed. Say what you will about this method, but I like it. I know you actually need short hill reps., plyos, lifting and short sprints all out to actually increase basic speed, but if you are just trying to improve your kick a little and stay in touch with (not exactly enhance) sprinting form/mechanics then I think fast barfoot strides work great. When you spike up and run fast your legs will be used to the heavily forefoot oriented method of really hitting the gas.

faster and faster wrote:

Nobody has mentioned the part where you accelerate slowly and steadily up to top speed. For me, it's 50m of acceleration and 50m of top speed. Top speed is not all out sprint, but more like 200m interval pace.

What do you mean nobody has mentioned it? Did you even read any of the posts?

And what is 200m interval speed? Don't call it top speed if it's not top speed. Top speed is literally all the fast you can run. It is top speed. If it's not an all out sprint then it's not top speed.

relevance wrote:

Are strides useful if you are training for an event where speed is not that relevant, as in a marathon?

Strides are appropriate to all training including marathons. What makes you think speed and efficiency isn't important to marathon success?

I do strides at mile pace. I will do them on the track or barefoot on turf or well-cut grass for 100m. The point of my strides is to improve my running economy and get me used to running at mile pace. I prefer to do them in flats or occasionally spikes, especially when I have not raced in several months. This is to gradually reintroduce the body to the stress it will undergo when racing in spikes. Usually 6-8 strides is sufficient, with whatever recovery will allow me to run them all with no form breakdowns (usually a walk/jog back or 1-2 mins). These are generally performed the day before a hard workout (to prime the body for fast running), or occasionally directly after a medium intensity workout like steady-state running.

I also do accelerations; these serve to improve my top end speed. Gradually accelerate for about 60m from mile pace to 400m pace, hold for 20m, then slowly shut down the last 20m. 2-4 of these is a cheeky stimulus the day before or as part of a warmup for an 800 metres.

My motto: strides are not for building speed, but for holding speed longer.

I do three types of strides: "everyday", "premeet", and "fast".

Everyday: probably around 3k effort but might get closer to mile if I'm feeling good. Likely will do 6-8x100m with around 30-60s rest depending on effort

Premeet: 2x100m around 800 effort, enough rest to feel comfortable (typically around 30s). I also typically run a 400m around 3k-5k effort right before.

Fast: closer to 400m effort, full rest. Will never do too many at this pace (probably not more than 4) but I often ease into it with a couple of 5k and 3k, followed by mile and 800 strides before.