billscreen wrote: »

Wanted to pass along a good read on this topic:

evolutionrunning.com/docs/Evolution-Running-Turnover-for-Slow-Running.pdf

Thanks for sharing this. I can run intentionally fast paces at or near this 180 step per minute turnover rate and as I've gotten better at it, I have gotten faster. However, I haven't tried to run easier runs at this turnover rate which calls for really short strides. Instead, it has been this slower turnover pace as mentioned in this article.

Today, I ran one of my easier runs at this high turnover rate by shortening the stride to maintain a low heart rate (even shorter on hills) with very little bounce. It was on one of several courses I run as an easy run with only short hill climbs (or drops). Since I run by time and (heart) pace, my timer is set in five minute increments rather than distance. So, by recent experience, I know where I usually end up at each time increment by controlling against heart rate.

So, I was really surprised by how much farther I was going in each five minute increment while keeping my heart rate down. Even as the course tilted up slightly and not so slightly, I was cruising along at a pace at least 30 seconds per mile faster than my "standard turnover pace" associated with this lower heart rate. I would typically run between 4.4 and 4.5 miles during the 45 minute out and back run. Today, I ran 4.85 miles and my average heart rate was actually lower by 3-4 bpm.

In reading the article, I may have been doing these easier runs incorrectly all this time. I'm coming up on my last marathon for the spring in three weeks, so I'm not sure how much of this I can incorporate into this upcoming race. But it will give me something to work on with my metronome over the summer and for shorter races that may be in my future.