WTF are Strides

You’ve probably seen on your friend's Strava post that they did something called a stride – but what actually is a stride? The word stride measures the length between one foot coming in contact with the ground to the other foot when it comes in contact with the ground. Your smart watch can measure this in terms of meters, but it may be hard to change the watch settings. When we talk about “doing strides”, we are usually talking about a running drill that is incorporated in your easy runs or just before a hard session/race.

Strides are gradual accelerations in pace over the course of 50-100 meters or 20-30 seconds. The key word here is gradual - strides are not a sprint. We’re aiming to work on holding good running form without adding additional fatigue. I recommend running strides at 5k pace/effort rather than an all-out sprint, as many of us do. 

I usually approach running strides like a bell curve. Start the first 5-10 seconds out as a gradual build from a jog to 5k pace, run the middle 10 seconds at 5k pace and then use the last 5-10 seconds to gradually slow down from 5k pace. Make sure to take a full 20-30 seconds to let your heart rate go down before going into the next effort. Doing strides, rather than sprints, will teach your body how to gradually transition from slow twitch to fast twitch muscle fibers and improve your form at faster speeds. 

Start by adding in strides 1-2x/week, preferably after your easy runs the day before a long run or a track workout. This will help prime your body for a harder effort without adding excess fatigue for your weekly mileage. 

One last note: They are definitely called strides and not striders. You run a mile, not a miler. Case dismissed.