It seems a bit karmic this week to read 2 different magazines that tied into a Blog article that I have been working on. I have been putting together an article about how strength training improves a runner’s stride length which in turn improves his/her “running economy”. Dr. Keith Livingstone, D.C. in his book “Healthy, Intelligent Training” has a great example on pg. 179.
“If we had a 2 meter stride length and ran 5000m in 14min, it would take 250 strides to cover the distance. But if we could increase our stride length by 5cm , then over 5000m at the same cadence and oxygen uptake intensity, this would translate into a time of 13:39 and no increase in O2 uptake or lactic acid tolerance, but merely better efficiency at getting from point A to B.”
Think about that- 5cm is roughly 2 inches- and with that small difference to chop 21 sec off your time in a 5K race and not work any harder.
THEN in RUNNING TIMES Magazine, Pete Magill talks about the importance of maintaining your stride length for Master’s level athletes (pg.38). According to research, your stride length will slowly decrease, so that by the time you are in your 70s you will have lost 40% compared to your stride in 20s. Or look at that as taking almost DOUBLE the amount of step/strides to cover the same distance in same time. YIKES! Mr. Magill highly recommends drill very similar to Dr Livingstone’s program of strengthening. Plyometric and hill repeats.
Lastly, in the latest NSCA Strength and Conditioning journal, there is a nice article “Maximum Speed : Misconceptions of Sprinting”pgs37-40 by Todd Brown and Jason Vescovi. They list studies that demonstrate that “ faster individuals take considerably longer strides compared with slower individuals”.
So, it seems that developing a powerful stride/push off is of utmost importance for any runner wanting to improve their running economy.
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