Stretch it Out
If your form is consistently good, your default cadence is around 180 steps per minute, and you've been playing around with faster cadence intervals for a few weeks, then it's time to add a bit more stride length at those faster cadences in order to achieve top speeds. Proceed with caution: over-striding even a hair too much at higher speeds can easily result in a pulled or torn muscle.
The most important thing to remember when doing stride length drills is that you should be thoroughly warmed up, but not fatigued. You want to work these drills in about three-quarters of the way through your short or mid-distance training runs. The next most important thing to remember is that you should stay relaxed. Stretch out your stride a just a little bit at a time and, if you feel any strain anywhere in your legs, back off just a bit.
If you're keeping your cadence right around 180 steps/minute, a small increase in stride length should naturally have you running at around three-quarter speed, which is the perfect place to start. Avoid the urge early on to increase both stride length and cadence at the same time. Be patient and save that for a bit later, when you have more experience reading the feedback signals from your body and you're more aware of its limits. Don't worry about that race you have coming up in two weeks; pushing yourself too soon could leave you spectating on the sidelines instead.
Put it All Together
Sometime down the road—perhaps six weeks or six months—you'll be ready to put all the pieces together, combining form, cadence and stride length into speed drills known as "strides." These are short bursts of very fast running, usually done near the end of a short or mid-distance easy run. As with the earlier drills, you should stay relaxed and not feel any leg strain during the strides. Start off by adding just a few seconds of fast running at the end of a short run—visualize the sprint to the finish line at your next race. As you get more comfortable with the mechanics of fast running, increase the duration of your stride drills a bit, and add a few more at earlier intervals throughout your runs.
A smart training program should still have you running easy about 80 percent of the time, but by incorporating these fundamental drills into the other 20 percent, you'll kick your training into overdrive.
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