3 Big Reasons to Incorporate Strides into your Runs

After years of training and coaching I’ve seen many benefits for adding strides to your training run. There are tons of ways to add strides, but before we talk about that lets talk about what a stride is and what it isn’t! Strides are simply a short burst of speed for 10-30 seconds followed by some period of active recovery/easy jog. During the “hard” stride effort the runner should be focused on correct form and increased efficiency. This means staying upright, appropriate turnover, landing under your center of gravity, and keeping your effort in control. A stride isn’t a wind sprint or an “all out” effort, but a strong, controlled, fast effort.

You can add your stride to the middle of a run or closer to the end of the run. Traditionally I recommend doing them closer to the end of the run or within the later part, so that the runner is somewhat fatigued. This helps to finish stronger and work on form while feeling tired.

Here are 3 reasons strides are awesome!

1. Helps with efficiency - When doing a stride you are more conscious of your form and stride length. It helps reduce the “slogging” along of a summer run. It forces you to focus for a few seconds.

2. Prepares your body for faster and more challenging upcoming workouts- Adding strides help your body adapt and prepare for our harder workouts later in your training phase. You want to reduce the risk of injury with a gradual build up, and strides are the best way to start. You have a short hard effort followed by plenty of recovery. While you may be slightly sore after your first few days of strides, you typically won’t be left sidelined or hobbling around from them.

3. Increase fitness- As your body is adapting and preparing for the harder workouts by adding in 4-6 strides on an easy run, you are also increasing your speed. You might see that the mile or two you added the strides in your run were faster than the rest. This doesn’t mean you need to start doing all of your runs at the same pace as your stride pace, but you should see some of those times start to come down just a bit.

So next time you see strides on your schedule, make sure not to skip out! They are super important and a key building block to your training. Try adding them into your training during the next few weeks. In college I loved doing barefoot strides on the UT track and soccer field. We did them to help our legs prepare for wearing track and cross country spikes. The grass was perfect and soft and it was a great way to finish up a run. If you do them barefoot, just make sure to start very gradually so you aren’t too sore. Because there is low risk and high reward with adding strides to your workout, there really isn’t a wrong time to start doing them. Leave a comment below about your strides. We look forward to hearing from you