I read a good series in Running Times the other day about coach Greg McMillan’s work with American marathoner Paige Higgins. He wrote several articles about how he’s been trying to get her to change her stride–to lengthen it slightly–because it thinks it’s the most likely way to help her get faster. In and of itself, the article was fascinating, but in particular what a longer stride length involved surprised me. Whenever I’ve thought of “striding out,” I’ve assumed it meant reaching my lead foot out further. But he was working more on getting Higgins to exert more force pushing off and kicking back with her trailing leg. I liked this idea of progress coming not so much from reaching out toward the place you want to go as pushing off from the place where you are. I want to get better at taking full advantage of where I am to get to where I want to be.
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