Strides.. sorting out my issues

I admit I have been seeing this thing called running strides for quite awhile now and thinking "maybe I should be running strides".  I have been planning to add in strides at the end of runs for well over a year now.  Confession: I have not been running strides. Until Kiley wrote them into the plan.

I had a vague idea of what they were.  Some sort of fast running in short intervals.  They are described in my plan as "short burst of fast running 80-150m" to be done during warm up or cool down. Alrighty, I got it, I thought.

Until I was out running and doing them.  I couldn't help but wonder..

• how far is 80-150 meters when converted into miles like my Garmin reads?
• was I running them fast enough?
• was I running them too fast?
• what are the benefits of strides?

My questions answered 

1. How far is 80-150 meters when converted into miles like my Garmin reads?

• 80 meters is .0497 miles so about .5 miles
• 100 meters is about .06
• 150 meters is .093 miles

So I want to run them between .05 and .09 miles to get in the correct distance roughly.

     2.  Am I running them fast enough or too fast?  I was running them hard at about 90%

• One website said to build them up to  95% and then gradually slow down
• Another said to go at 5k pace
• and finally the third site I looked at said build to 85% and gradually slow down,

So basically there is a bit of a range there,but the takeaway was build up to a fast speed and then gradually slow to a stop,

source

I was just going all out for the whole thing and then stopping into a slow jog, so clearly there was some room for improvement there.

So from what I can tell about a third of the distance should be used to ease into the fast pace, one third for the fast pace and then one third of the distance to slow down. Recovery should be a slow jog or even a walk.

and finally what we all really want to know...

What are the benefits of running strides?

• They make you faster!
• They can help loosen up tight leg muscles after a longer easy run.
• They can improve running economy
• Done before a race or speed session they get the heart pumping and the muscles warmed up.

Are you doing strides?  Cola and I are.