Monday 28 November 2011

The difficult bits

So there I was, out for a morning run, bouncing along thinking I was really working on the issues I need to work on in order to go faster- basically, looking at stride cadence. I thought I just needed to move my legs faster.
To a point this is true, however, when you are taking faster steps, it seems that the stride length just becomes smaller.

I was prepared for this and thought it wasn't really an issue. As and when, I'll pick up on the stride length. However, at one point today I thought I'd stretch out and give the long stride a bit of a go- lo and behold, I was knackered before I'd taken 20 steps.

Oh dear. This is a new turn in developments. It appears that what I thought was the obvious culprit for slow-ness, my cadence, isn't necessarily the issue. Thinking about it, at the end of a race when I put on a burst of speed, its the stride length that really makes things happen. Long strides, for me, appear to be anaerobic, or at the least, part of the lactic threshold- so I can sustain long strides for not all that long. I need to think about how I can break out of the anaerobic threshold and into the aerobic with long strides. Probably something that elite athletes have trying to perfect for years. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained, so its not just stride cadence that I need to think about now, its the length as well.

Out in the Baregrips again. As I run in them more, unsurprisingly they are getting better even on rubbly paths- more practice in them needed as well!

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