Hello, I’ve been running a whopping five weeks. My first 5k is in a week. I can almost run the whole thing, but not yet. I have to rest about 7% of the total, ten minutes total, as best I can tell.

Am I doing “bad” or “less” with a longer stride? I prefer the longer stride. It feels better to me, but feels like I’m doing less work than a short stride.

Thanks for any help.

If interested,

I was hoping for wisdom. When I started my stride was very short, quicker cadence?. My heartrate gets to about 150 (I’m over 40.) As I got better at running or at least getting more comfortable, I started using my knees or maybe I should say lifting my knees more. I don’t know. All I know is that my stride gets longer, more relaxed in the calves, shins, etc.

But, as my stride lengthened, I had to turn up the speed on the treadmill to about 5.4mph from 4.xmph with the shorter stride. If I tried to match the speed of 5.4 with a short stride, its crazy fast. I can only do the longer stride with the faster speed.

Ok. I feel like I’m doing less work with the longer stride. It’s still hard. I believe my heart rate was lower, 136+, maybe more, but I still felt like my running was “easier” somehow.

Am I doing “bad” or “less” with a longer stride? I prefer the longer stride. It feels better to me