Strides are what gets your body geared up to get fast. Strides are commonplace to prep yourself for an upcoming hard workout. It can be used as a tool for warmup or even training.
What Is Striding?
Striding is running loose and relaxed. You run a distance only a short distance of 60m – 150m. It is considered running at short bursts of speed, keeping your form upright and really concentrating on your strides and leg movement as your leg cycles. It isn’t an all out sprint but really just a faster tempo. Concentrate on placing your feet ahead of one another faster then the previous stride.
Why Striding?
Striding is a great way to train your legs to have a fast turnover without taxing your body that much. You won’t be too tired for your next workout. It is ideal to have a cadence of 180 or more and striding is a great way to be able to hit this 180 magic number. It also strengthens your neuromuscular response.
Striding After An Easy Run
Incorporate strides into your easy run. Finish off your easy run with 5-8 sets of striding 80m. Remember to rest in between sets. You can walk back to the starting point as your recovery in between sets. Doing this after an easy run helps remind your body what it feels like to run fast. It also loosens up your muscles and preps your body for a hard session perhaps the next day.
Bad Run? – Introduce Strides
It may seem counterintuitive to run faster when you are feeling sluggish and tired. But, after a bout of striding, running at a slower pace will seem much easier. Striding has the ability of turning flat runs around. It makes you feel better about your run and also allows you to train your turnover rate of your feet.
Build Strength With Hill Strides
Another important training component is hill strides which allows you to build strength and power behind your strides. Find a hill and bound up the hill. Give yourself ample time to recover. It is quite mini-plyometric workout that really gives your legs that power. But, remember that this is not an all out session. It isn’t a hard session – this is why to prevent it from being too hard of a workout the hill strides are to be kept short and give yourself plenty of recovery time in between sets.
Train Your Neuromuscular Response
You can have the strongest pair of legs in the world but unable to cycle them fast enough. Your turnover rate is slow because of slow neuromuscular response. Your nerve passageways need to be taught to fire away more quickly so your legs are able to turnover more quickly. One way to do this is through striding. Another method is through ladder drills.
Remember, strides are just a method to increaser turnover. It isn’t supposed to be hard fast sessions. So if you aren’t running a record breaking 80m timing, don’t fret!
