I was thinking about that the other day as my brother-in-law asked me how to increase his stride. He’s new to running, otherwise he would know that my stride’s not necessarily one to emulate. But I know HOW to increase stride and improve times, even if I don’t DO it.
For a better stride or time, you increase your speed or you increase your incline, or better yet, you do both.
There’s an exercise that sounds ridiculous but is actually valid called “fartleks.” I know, I know. You won’t forget the name so easily. Put simply, you begin your run at a normal pace, then pick a spot approximately 100 yards in front of you and sprint to it. Repeat throughout the run and do this one or more times a week and you’re bound to pick up the pace a bit.
Doing hills and doing them as fast as possible will have a nasty effect on your run enjoyment level (unless you’re awesome and it gives you a high – hats off to you), but will have a solid effect on your time and that pretty little stride you’re searching for. Really, it will. And my dad says it will grow hair on your chest. So far not true, thank goodness.
Back to life, isn’t it interesting how you grow in life often through the same techniques? Difficult times, trials of stress and trials of the uphill climb variety teach us who we are. They help us shake off the love handles, you could say, leaving us with a purer faith and a stronger character. They suck. Yes. But most often we’d keep them for the fact that afterwards we realize what we’ve overcome.
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