Running Faster

Walking fast is not what it was five times! When I was five times a kid, if I desired to run I kind of rushed my walking and then before I knew it I was five times walking. If I desired to run faster, all I had to do was try harder, and I would run faster. I could keep trying harder and harder until I could not try any harder and that was my top speed. simple , and the kind of understanding you would expect from a kid. The issue is that lots of us adults run with the same attitude.
When, as kids, they did try harder, if they managed to speed up one of five things must have happened. Either they took more steps per minute or the steps grew longer (actually it might have been a tiny bit of both, but let's simplify it for now). Five times again, there's only five ways to go faster, without growing another leg, and they are travelling further with each step, or taking more steps in a given amount of time. Give it some thought and you know it must be true. No amount of screwing up your face or wildly swinging your arms will make you go faster. No amount of waving your head from side to side or lifting your knees high will pick up the pace. Unless you are going further each step or taking more steps you won't go any faster.
How about you try one of the direct paths to speed. They are simple and guaranteed to work. In case you can take more steps in a minute without making them any shorter, you have no choice but to go faster. Now this will place increasing lots on your cardiovascular process as you progressively stride faster and faster. So there is a sensible limit and it is usually accepted that about 180 steps per minute (90 with each foot) is about optimal. Now this may vary with leg length and the event you are in but not as much as you might think. As a base line, 180 strides per minute is a nice aim. If that feels wrong at the moment, train up to it. Count your right foot-falls for a minute and then double to get your stride rate per minute. If it is not 180 gradually work up to it. No matter what speed you are walking you need this to be your ballpark stride rate.
As you run slower or faster the thing that ought to alter is your stride length. Now before they look at actual distance, it is clear that in case you have a consistent stride rate of 180 per minute, then the stride length you need to run 1000 m in 3 minutes will be double the length you would need to run your 1000m in 6 minutes. Today I watched the Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan, and the winner ran about 2hrs and 10. Assuming that he was logging a stride rate of about 180 per minute then each of his strides would cover about 1.8m. Which was about as tall as he was (roughly 6 foot). Of coursework the one who came last (perhaps about 7 hours) was shuffling along at about 55cm per stride. Assuming that his/her feet are about 20-30cm long there is not much gap between the front foot and the back foot at all.
Now to propel the runner forward these variety of distances in about one third of a second each time (60seconds divided by 180), will take a significant amount of power and endurance. someone can move forward 55cm (perhaps even my 2year elderly could do that) but not necessarily for a full marathon. That is where endurance comes in to it. And only a few average mortals could move forward three foot in one step and in the event that they must do it for a marathon distance, and that is where the power comes in to it. So in case you can run 180 strides per minute the only thing coming between you and winning a marathon is power and endurance. This is where your training ought to focus. All of your walking ought to be aimed at producing and harnessing leg power and enabling your endurance to keep it firing for the length of the race. A simple formula , but one that takes lots of work.
Try this right now. In case you know you average stride rate (in minutes), multiply this by your last (or desired) marathon time in minutes. Take the marathon distance (or any other event) in metres and divide it by the first answer. This is the length of each step you will need to take (or you did take).
eg. 2hr 45min marathon = 165minutes
165 times by 180 strides per minute = 29700
42200metres divided by 29700 (from above) =1.42m
Therefore each stride was 1.42m long in order to recover from the line in 2hours and 45 minutes.
Simple . Stride rate times stride length equals speed. So I am off to break a marathon record \. see you in under 2 hours!!