Running: Combining Easy Runs with Strides for Enhanced Performance

How Do You Run Easy With Strides?

Combining easy running with strides involves incorporating short, controlled bursts of faster running into the latter part of your aerobic base runs, enhancing running form, leg speed, and neuromuscular efficiency without significant added fatigue.

Understanding Easy Running

Easy running forms the cornerstone of any effective running program. This is running at a comfortable, conversational pace where you can easily hold a dialogue, typically corresponding to a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 2-4 out of 10. Physiologically, easy runs are paramount for:

• Developing Aerobic Capacity: They build your body's ability to use oxygen efficiently, increasing mitochondrial density and capillary networks in your muscles.
• Enhancing Fat Metabolism: Training at lower intensities teaches your body to burn fat more effectively for fuel, preserving glycogen stores.
• Promoting Recovery: Easy runs aid in active recovery from more intense workouts, flushing out metabolic byproducts and increasing blood flow.
• Building Durability: Consistent easy running strengthens muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones, reducing injury risk.

What Are Strides?

Strides, also known as accelerations or pick-ups, are short, controlled bursts of faster running, typically lasting 15-30 seconds or covering 60-150 meters. They are not all-out sprints, but rather an opportunity to practice good running form at a quicker pace. The key characteristics of strides include:

• Controlled Acceleration: You gradually build up speed, reaching near-maximal but not strained effort (around 90-95% of your top speed, but feeling smooth and efficient).
• Focus on Form: Strides are a drill to reinforce efficient biomechanics – tall posture, quick cadence, light footfall, relaxed upper body, and slight forward lean from the ankles.
• Brief Duration: They are too short to induce significant fatigue or lactic acid buildup.
• Full Recovery: Adequate rest between repetitions is crucial to ensure each stride is executed with quality form and effort.

The Synergy: Why Combine Easy Runs with Strides?

Integrating strides into easy runs offers a unique blend of benefits that optimize your running performance and reduce injury risk:

• Neuromuscular Activation: Strides awaken and train your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are often underutilized during easy running. This improves your body's ability to recruit these fibers efficiently for faster paces.
• Improved Running Economy: By practicing good form at higher speeds, you teach your body to run more efficiently, translating to less energy expenditure at any given pace.
• Enhanced Leg Speed and Turnover: Regularly incorporating short bursts of speed helps improve your leg speed, cadence, and overall quickness.
• Mental Refreshment: Strides can break up the monotony of a long easy run, adding a fun, dynamic element to your training.
• Preparation for Intensity: They serve as a gentle introduction to faster running, preparing your body for more demanding workouts like tempo runs or intervals without the associated fatigue.
• Injury Prevention: By reinforcing proper running mechanics, strides can help correct inefficiencies and imbalances that might otherwise lead to overuse injuries.

How to Incorporate Strides into Your Easy Run

The strategic placement and execution of strides are crucial to maximize their benefits.

• Timing:
  • Perform strides towards the end of your easy run, after you've accumulated at least 20-30 minutes of continuous easy running. Your body should be thoroughly warmed up and your muscles pliable.
  • Avoid doing strides at the very beginning of a run when your body is still cold, as this increases injury risk.
• Location:
  • Choose a flat, smooth, and safe surface. A track, a grassy field, a quiet road, or a clear path are ideal.
  • Ensure there's enough space for both the acceleration and deceleration phases.
• Execution (The Mechanics):
  1. Warm-up: Complete your planned duration of easy running first.
  2. Start Gradually: Begin each stride with a gentle acceleration, building speed smoothly.
  3. Focus on Form: As you accelerate, concentrate on:
     • Tall Posture: Run tall, as if a string is pulling you upwards from the crown of your head.
     • Relaxed Shoulders: Keep your shoulders down and relaxed, avoiding tension in your neck and upper body.
     • Efficient Arm Swing: Arms should swing freely and naturally, elbows bent at approximately 90 degrees, moving forward and back, not across your body.
     • Quick Cadence: Aim for a high turnover, light and quick footfalls.
     • Midfoot Strike: Land lightly on your midfoot, directly under your center of gravity.
     • Slight Forward Lean: Lean slightly from your ankles, not your waist.
  4. Effort Level: The pace should feel fast but controlled, smooth, and efficient, not strained or an all-out sprint. You should feel like you could maintain the pace for a bit longer if needed.
  5. Duration/Distance: Each stride should last approximately 15-30 seconds or cover 60-150 meters.
  6. Deceleration: Gradually slow down after each stride, allowing your momentum to dissipate naturally. Do not stop abruptly.
  7. Recovery: Take a full recovery between each stride, walking or very slowly jogging for 60-90 seconds (or until your breathing and heart rate return to near-easy run levels). This ensures each subsequent stride can be performed with proper form and quality.
  8. Number of Repetitions: Start with 4-6 strides and gradually build up to 8-10 repetitions as you become more comfortable and efficient.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Sprinting All-Out: Strides are about controlled speed and form, not maximal effort that leads to heavy breathing and muscle fatigue.
• Insufficient Warm-up: Doing strides on cold muscles significantly increases injury risk.
• Neglecting Recovery: Skipping the recovery period between strides turns them into an interval workout, defeating their purpose of form refinement and neuromuscular activation without fatigue.
• Poor Form: Losing focus on posture and mechanics turns strides into sloppy fast running, negating their primary benefit.
• Doing Too Many: More is not always better. Focus on quality over quantity.

Who Benefits from Strides?

Virtually all runners can benefit from incorporating strides into their easy runs:

• Beginner Runners: Strides help develop a feel for faster running and efficient form early in their running journey.
• Experienced Runners: They serve as a crucial component for maintaining leg speed, reinforcing form, and preparing for race-specific paces.
• Runners Returning from Injury: Strides are a safe way to reintroduce speed and impact, provided the injury has fully healed and a medical professional has cleared the activity.
• Runners Targeting PRs: By improving running economy and neuromuscular coordination, strides directly contribute to faster race times.

Integrating Strides into Your Training Plan

A common approach is to add 4-8 strides at the end of 2-3 easy runs per week. For example, if you run 3-4 times a week, you might include strides at the end of two of those easy runs. As an active warm-up for a more intense workout (like a tempo run or interval session), 4-6 strides can also be performed after a thorough easy jog warm-up.

Conclusion

Running easy with strides is a simple yet powerful training strategy that bridges the gap between aerobic endurance and speed development. By consistently practicing efficient running mechanics at a faster pace without accumulating significant fatigue, you enhance your running economy, improve leg speed, and build a more resilient, well-rounded running body. Incorporate them wisely, listen to your body, and enjoy the feeling of smooth, efficient speed.