The Importance of Stride Length

World class distance runners run a 10K at about 18 seconds per 100 meters. Joggers who sprint 100 meters in 18 seconds will have essentially the same stride length and the same leg turn-over rate as the world class distance runners, but they will be exhausted at the end of their first 100 meters.

No doubt, when you were in high school your coach urged you to lengthen your stride, because he knew faster runners had longer strides. This advice was reasonable on the surface, but was useless in practice.

When we run faster our strides naturally get longer, however, lengthening our strides will not necessarily allow us to run faster. This is because, the reason runner "A" can run faster than runner "B" has more to do with runner "A's" body's ability to produce energy at a faster rate, which allows him to produce the extra energy needed to run faster, i.e. support a longer stride, than it does with consciously trying to lengthen his stride, to run faster. When we consciously make an effort to lengthen our strides, we tend to leap higher in the air and float before touching down. In this situation, our strides are longer, but we spend more time in the air, and since we only move forward when we are in contact with the ground, forward progress is slowed.

Under normal circumstances, we only contract a small number of the available muscle fibers in a given muscle group when we run. This allows the body to replenish energy supplies in one group of fibers while another group contracts, and so it goes in an alternating fashion, one muscle fiber contracting while another is recovering. Contracting all available fibers in a given contraction quickly overwhelms the body's ability to replenish used energy substrate and soon the muscle fibers are unable to contract because they have no energy to do so.

Taking a simple view of a very complex issue, you could say that the ability to rapidly clear the waste products of energy production (carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, a variety of ketones and water) and replenish energy substrate (glucose, triglycerides, free fatty acids and oxygen) at the cellular level is the principle difference between a world class distance runner and an average distance runner.

In order, to lengthen our strides, we need to contract more muscle fibers, with greater force, this requires more energy. In order to lengthen our strides and maintain the same leg turnover, we need to produce more energy per contraction and at a faster rate. At some point our bodies can no longer meet the demand for energy and we must slow down. Therefore, if we are running at or near our fastest pace and we consciously try to increase our stride length, we must slow down our turnover rate in order to meet the increased energy demand. When we slow down our turnover rate, we end up running the same pace or slower.

Generally when a runner tries to lengthen his stride to run faster, he simply becomes increasingly inefficient, and ultimately runs slower. The good news is, you can forget all about stride length and just run. As you get more fit, your body will be able to produce energy at a faster rate at the cellular level, and you will be able to run faster. And yes, when you are able to run faster, your strides will be longer, but you will not need to think about longer strides to make them longer, your strides will be naturally longer, because longer strides are a function of running faster. Makes sense right?

I used to ride horses in endurance races. Horses are among the best runners on earth...they are also among the stupidest animals on earth. If horses had to think about things like breathing rate, leg turn-over rate and stride length, they wouldn't manage a single step. The fact is horses are fast, efficient and graceful.

If this fails to convince you, consider this...most people can run a mile in 9 minutes, but very few people can run a marathon in less than 4 hours (roughly 9 minutes per mile). This is because running a marathon has more to do with endurance (the ability to produce large volumes of energy for an extended period of time) than with absolute running speed. Completing a marathon in 4 hours requires running efficiently. Over-striding, for any given pace, is always inefficient.

How does your body become more efficient at producing larger volumes of energy over longer periods of time, by us forcing it to run longer and longer distances at a moderate pace. The secret to maximizing your long distance running success is found in LSD, not the drug, but lots of long, slow, distance. Keep on truckin…