Every Race is an Adventure!

November 05, 2024

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Location:

Orem,UT,USA

Member Since:

Apr 03, 2006

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

HS/COLLEGE:
mile: 4:56, 2 mile: 10:21 (1978)
marathon: 2:52 (St. George 1982)
OLD MAN (20+ years later):
5K: 19:53 (Nestle/Art City Days 5K 2007)
10K: 39:55 (Spectrum 10K 2008)
half marathon: 1:26 (Hobble Creek 2008)
marathon: 3:07 (St. George 2007)

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get back to a BQ marathon time (currently 3:40).

Long-Term Running Goals:

Have fun running, keep fit, and fight middle age spread. Run consistently and injury free. Maintain a healthy balance between running and other life priorities. Encourage my ever-aging running buddies to keep running so we can continue to share runs on the trail instead of rocking chairs.

Personal:

Blessed to be married to Karen for 30 years. We have six children (4 daughters/2 sons) ages 16 to 30, and one wonderful granddaughter.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00
Altra Instinct 1.5 Lifetime Miles:						83.50
Altra Lone Peak 1.5 Lifetime Miles:						21.80
Saucony Guide 7 Blue 2 Lifetime Miles:						376.95
Saucony Fastwitch 6 Lifetime Miles:						200.05
Saucony Guide 7 Black 1 Lifetime Miles:						271.15

Thu, May 24, 2007

Easy Miles	Threshold Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Track speed mileage	Hill mileage	Total
5.10	0.00	1.00	0.00	0.00	6.10

I ran the Lindon loop with Larry this morning. I was pleased to see that the pace of our "easy pace" is getting a little quicker. During the winter we slogged some runs at a 9:45 or slower pace. The average of this morning's run was closer to 8:45. Some of that was due to Larry wanting to push the last mile. Larry was hoping for around a 7:30 pace and we came in at a 7:33 pace.

About 2/3 into the run I decided to check Larry's stride rate and then mine. Yesterday I only counted my stride rate while I was pushing hard for 60 seconds. Today I counted at our normal pace. Larry's stride rate was 168 and mine was 180, even though we were both running the same pace. He was surprised by this. I've been trying over the last year or more to try to shorten my stride and increase my stride rate. It seems I've made some progress. I really think it might help Larry, too. It might be what he needs to finally get that Boston qualifying time. He's been within 5-10 minutes for years. Of course, every year he says he needs to lose 20 pounds and put in more miles. That might help, too.

Comments

From Clay Simmons on Thu, May 24, 2007 at 16:10:32

How do you find your stride rate? I would like to check mine and compare. Good work today.

From Paul T on Thu, May 24, 2007 at 16:19:18

Your stride rate is steps/minute. You can simply count 1 for each step you take for 60 seconds. It's easier if you just count 1 for each step you take with your left (or right) leg for 60 seconds then multiply by two.

I actually prefer to count 1 for every 3 steps. Since 180 steps/minute is 3 steps/sec, if I start when the seconds reach 00 on my watch, I can count 1 for every three steps I take (one-2-3, two-2-3, three-2-3, etc.) and multiply by three. This allows me to compare my count with the seconds on my watch and see how I'm doing. If my count matches the seconds exactly, then I know I'm at the 180 steps/second rate, else I can see how much ahead or behind I am.

Any of the above methods work. You just need to count your steps for 60 seconds.

From Clay Simmons on Thu, May 24, 2007 at 16:29:42

Sounds good. I will give it a try tomorrow when I run and see where I stand. Thanks again for the help.

From Tom on Thu, May 24, 2007 at 16:58:07

You got me curious Paul about my stride rate as I haven't checked it for quite a while. So on my run today I checked it a few times during my 5-mile easy run. I was pretty much in the 175-180 range so I guess I'm close to where I should be but perhaps I could increase slightly. I'm pretty sure on my faster runs it increases a hair but I'll have to check this out on the next tempo run.

I have noticed before that Kerry and your stride rate is noticeably faster than mine so I'm not surprised you measured yours at over 190. I'll bet Kerry is similar. I don't know that the higher rate is a bad thing...I've noticed during a few marathons that some of the 'old' guys tend to shuffle by me (as they pass me) with a quite high stride rate.

Not to say that you're getting old or anything..... ;-))

From Sasha Pachev on Thu, May 24, 2007 at 17:04:21

I've done quite a bit of playing around with stride rate and have come to the conclusion that stride rate of 180-190 is indeed ideal, but you cannot force it. You have to be in shape to do it. If you are doing only 168, it is probably because you do not yet have the fitness to turn over at 180 with the same stride length, which would of course give you a faster pace, and you cannot really have a shorter stride without doing something really odd. You should not artificially or unnaturally shorten the stride just to get the magic 180 number. Extra weight would probably reduce you stride rate too. Just try this mental experiment - pick up a 50 lb backup and try running with it. You would not be turning over very quickly.

Another interesting observation. Haile Gebrselassie in the movie Endurance is turning over at 190 while running about 66 seconds per quarter in the Olympic 10 ,000 meter final. I turn over at about 225 at the same pace. Why? 66 second quarter for me is 800 meter race pace. Or perhaps the other way around - because I have to turn over at 225 to run a 66 second quarter, I can only hold that pace for 800 meters. I turn over at 190 at my 10,000 meter race pace (about 80 second quarter). When you are more fit, the stride length capability increases as well.

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