Increase my stride ?

[Indi57]

Should I increase my stride now I've completed wk9, I want to ke this running lark up at least 3times a week any input would be gratefully received thanks

[Deryn61 Graduate]

I wouldnt concentrate on increasing your stride length alone. Many people are doing the follow on programme to C25K to build more strength and speed, I havent done it myself so not sure if stride length is covered.

There are lots of articles on stride length versus stride frequency (cadence) on the net.

Here is an extract from one I found easy to understand

"It might seem almost paradoxical but the first thing I teach my runners is to improve their stride rate (cadence) and not worry about their stride length.

Why? Because most recreational runners have too low a cadence. Many are below 170.

The cadence range of 170 - 180 covers all speeds from easy runs to racing. For speed workouts you may get over 180.

It's important to keep in mind that you should work on your cadence during your easier runs. Everyone's cadence naturally goes up when doing speed work but the key is to make your normal running cadence fall in that magic range.

Once the cadence is established you should then worry about stride length. To improve it, you need to add technique drills, plyometrics and speedwork into your program."

and here is the link

corerunning.com/stride_leng...

[arablue]

I know what you mean. I recently said to a friend, I didn't realise there was so much to running. I thought you could just get out there and do it, like when you were little and ran for the pure fun of it!

I found out a lot about cadence and find the higher cadence a big help. It means there is much less impact on my knees and my shins don't hurt. As an added bonus my speed has also increased, due to more strides and to getting less exhausted by discomfort when running.

I am only on wk5R1 (yesterday) but find my new running style makes life easier. I looked up some songs which had 180 bpm, and went for a walk in the morning listening to them. Then in the afternoon before running did the exercises recommended by this guy, which helped me understand and put them into practice. Hope this helps.

youtube.com/watch?v=qVM6vy8...(Not working as expected?)

[Indi57 Graduate]

Thank you, deryn61 and arablue, I will certainly be looking at the website you suggested, I've looked at this video clip and it makes sense, I'm going to put this to practise on my next run, once again thanks guys