Today was gray with rain threatening, so I decided to take my own advice and use the treadmill. If you remember, we learned already that our ability to run faster is determined by two factors: stride rate and stride length. For now I am working on increasing my stride rate (also known as turnover or cadence).

Increasing Stride Rate

Today was my easy run, so it seemed like a good opportunity to work on increasing my stride rate before tomorrow's long run. I set the treadmill at a comforta...

Running the 5K in the Huntsville Half Marathon - Oct 17, 2009

I'm writing this after my first run using the running tips mentioned in the previous article to help me run faster. To refresh your memory, the initial objective is to increase stride rate until it's 90 strides per minute or better. (For clarity, one stride is from point of contact of one foot to the next point of contact of the same foot, so a stride rate of 90 means that your left foot hits the ground 90 times in one minute.)

O...

So far, I never met a runner who wanted to run slower – everyone wants to know how to run faster! As a permanent back-of-the-pack runner, I accept the fact that most runners run faster than me. I look in envy at the elite runners streaming in to the finish while I'm still getting started.

I just read a great article by Steven Bentley of Bentley Coaching on Running Efficiently. In a nutshell, he points out that to run faster you need to improve your running efficiency. Most of this artic...

After all the rain we have had lately, yesterday and today have been beautiful again, with temperatures ranging from 50F to 75F, dry and sunny with light winds. I was able to really enjoy my long run yesterday: it started cool, but was quite warm enough by the end. However, at the end I felt quite tired and was feeling a little pain.

Pain at the end of a run is always a warning sign, and an indication to figure out what caused it. When I did an easy run today, the pain was still there, but ...