Technique and Efficiency


Running Efficiently



If you’re a runner and trying to or wishing you could run faster then chances are you’re doing some of these speed killers….

-you Overstride

-you Heel strike

-you’re using your muscles in your glutes and quads to run

-you’re launching upwards

-you have a slow turnover 

Since 1990 I’ve helped people train and race in 1000s of triathlon and running events around the world. I LOVE to help people get more efficient, and faster. I have a 5km pb of 15:29, 10km pb of 31minutes, a half marathon pb of 1 hour 11 minutes and an Ironman marathon pb of 3:02. Getting the most out of my running was what allowed me to go relatively fast with relatively little running.

There are two factors that will determine your speed:

1) your stride rate (the frequency of your stride, or how often you take a stride) and 

2) your stride length (the distance each stride moves (you) across the ground. As you’ll see later this isn’t the same as how far your legs move in relation to your body). 

In trying to run faster, many people try to do both of these at the same time in their speed training, but lower both during their easier/slower runs. When someone only runs with high turnover during their ‘speed’ runs they aren’t able to adapt to the stress of that higher turnover as well. So when they run fast their heart rate and respiratory rate elevate.

A better strategy is to allow your body to adapt to the stresses of running faster and do it in a way that incorporates good technique.  What I prefer to do is work on efficiency and (high) turnover first, and do that for all your running, even your long base pace runs, and THEN work on trying to run faster.

Stride Rate (Turnover)

I like to work on stride rate first with my athletes as this establishes both proper running mechanics and aerobic efficiency that we'll need for running faster later. In order to run with a higher turnover (stride rate) you typically need to do the following:

-establish a slightly forward leaning body position so your feet are landing UNDER your body, not in front of it, 

-produce a foot-strike position closer to the centre of your foot (not necessarily forefoot), 

-rebound quicker off your ground-contact leg, and

-decrease vertical oscillation.

I’ll break each of these down in the following paragraphs but focusing on stride rate first, even at slow running speeds, forces you to establishe a good foundation for efficiency and therefore future running speed gains. You will run slower initially (on purpose) until you adapt to the new running stride. Increasing stride rate first allows your cardio-respiratory system to become accustomed to the increased aerobic demands of turning your legs over quickly. Once you get your system used to working out at a higher turnover (despite how small your stride length may be initially) you can then increase your stride length by simply increasing the energy you apply to your running, more specifically the explosive force of your feet.

Turning your legs over faster will lead to many positive changes in your running form and efficiency. To begin with, taking more steps in the course of a minute (without a corresponding increase in ground speed) will force you to shorten your stride length, which is exactly what we want to happen when establishing this new running pattern. Initially, I find people do very well running on a treadmill to establish the feel for an increased stride rate. Once you set the speed of the treadmill you don’t need to worry about accidentally increasing your speed along with your increased stride rate. The constant speed of the treadmill in effect ensures that an increasing stride rate will result in a shorter stride length. As mentioned this shorter stride length will ideally bring your foot strike more beneath your body. This will allow you to run over top of your feet rather than onto them (as would happen if you were overstriding).

When you overstrike in front of your body and run onto your feet (think running heel - toe), you create mini breaking actions at every footstrike, not what you want when trying to go forward. When you land with your foot directly under your body instead of out in front, you have less resistive force and are able to get off your feet quicker and thereby shorten the time your foot is in contact with the ground. Imagine you're a ball - A ball rolls so well because its centre of mass is directly over where it contacts the ground. A box doesn't roll so well because it's centre of mass is well behind where its leading edge is.

More specifically, as your feet are hitting the ground you actually want to be pulling them backwards. The reactive force of the ground will then drive you forward.

Go easy though, maintaining that higher stride rate is quite aerobically challenging. Your muscles need to adapt to the higher turnover. It’s possible your calves will get tight and not feel too good initially. You need to focus on your new higher stride rate on ALL your runs in order to ingrain it into your new running form. Your aerobic system will also have to adjust to the increased load due to the higher turnover. Once that is established though (usually takes a few weeks) you’ll be able to increase the speed/explosive power component of the stride and eventually the length of your stride (not how far your legs move but how far YOU move across the ground).

Work on getting your running cadence (number of times one foot hits the ground in 1 minute) as close to the low 90s (or higher) as possible. If your stride rate is higher than this then you’re doing well already. As an aside, almost all elite runners have stride rates between the mid-90s to mid 100s. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, if you want to run fast you have to get your stride rate up. The winners of all the top running races in distances from 1 mile to the marathon (including triathlons) are almost all at between 92 and 104 strides per minute.

Now, counting your strides for a whole minute is tough. I have a hard time counting and keeping track of numbers when running/racing. To make it easier to count your strides, time yourself for 20 seconds and try to get to 30 or 31 strides for one leg. The obviously triple that number to get your strides per minute.

Shorten That Leg

Your feet should have the sensation of moving up and down as you run and not really moving forward and back. By bending your knee as you drive your leg forward, you will reduce the effort required to return your leg forward (don’t shuffle with feet low to the ground). Try this exercise. Stand upright with nothing around you. Stand on your left leg and with a straight right leg swing your right leg forward and back. Increase the speed of the swing till you’re swinging your leg as fast as you can. Take note of all the force that’s being put through your body. Feel the torque and the resulting requirement for your arms and other body parts to have to shift around constantly to counteract this swaying force (not something you want to be doing while actually running). Now, without decreasing the effort level of your swing, bend your right swinging leg at the knee. Feel 1) how much more quickly you can now move your leg, and 2) how much easier it is to move your leg back and forth (less torque through your body). So if you’re out on a run and shuffling along, you’re likely putting a whole lot of unnecessary energy into moving your legs forward. Bend them a bit more and you’ll be able to get them forward quicker (which will help your stride rate) and with less required energy.

Stay Smooth

Run smoother and you’ll direct more energy towards moving you forwards rather than up and down. My Dad was a pro cyclist back in England and into form and efficient movement. I remember him telling me years and years ago about a Russian running coach who would have his athletes run through a tunnel that was only an inch or so over their heads. They learned to run through the tunnel without bouncing up and down too much. As they progressed the coach would gradually lower the height of the tunnel for each athlete, till the tunnel was just barely above their heads. They would have to run smoothly or they would take the top of their heads off. Ouch. Running smoothly allows you to conserve energy, as you aren’t directing energy to move up and have to arrest your resulting plunge back to earth. This reduces muscle fatigue and the saved energy is therefore available to allow you to run longer and/or faster. To run smoother, focus on driving forward as you push off with your rear foot rather than pushing up. Because you’ll be taking shorter strides, at least initially, you won’t need to jump as high into the air to allow for your leg to get forward to catch you for your next stride. This driving forward motion will happen naturally as you land under your body, load quickly onto your foot and then unload as your body has travelled over and past your foot. As you unload off your foot your body will be well ahead of your rear foot so the reactive force is to drive your body forwards.  Conversely, if you overstrike and land in front of your body, by the time you load and unload your foot will be under your body as you spring off it, sending you upwards.

Use Your Hands


Bringing it All Together

Do the above for a number of weeks, or more, in order to get those movement patterns engrained and allow your cardio and heart rates to adapt. 

Now for the fun part - SPEED!!!

Once you've established this proper running efficiency you can add in the speed component. You shouldn't find your leg range of motion change too much. It will open up a bit but not as much as you think.

Shorter Impact Duration

Studies out of the UK have shown that reducing the time your foot is in contact with the ground by only 1/100ths of a second can shave many minutes off your run race times. The shorter impact duration creates more explosive force and hence a better push off from the ground to drive you forward. Of course the time saved depends on how efficient you are to begin with. The bottom line though is if you do nothing else but get off your foot faster while running you’ll be able to generate more power in your stride and ultimately increase the distance you travel through the air. So the quicker you can get on and off your feet the more force you will be able to direct into the ground which will in turn allow you to move forward faster. So think quick light steps.

A great feeling for running faster is skipping or bouncing on the middle to front of your feet. Feel like you're bouncing up and down off your foot, where you load and unload off your forefoot. To go faster just create more load and explosive reaction off the ground. Skipping rope is a great activity to build those explosive muscles and create the required tension in your feet ankles and calves.  


Remember to keep things smooth. Don't unload off your rear foot too early or you'll just pop yourself up into the air. Ensure you drive forward and get that lead foot underneath your body (not out in front). You should have that sensation of falling forward all the time.

Again, go into this part slowly as you'll create a lot more load thru your tendons, muscles and ligaments. Pretty soon though you'll be increasing your run speed nicely with a lot less effort than it took to go that fast before.

Happy (and fast) running. Steve

Cycling Efficiency





Hip Flexors









Pulling it all Together



Swimming Efficiency






Entry and Catch









-maintain better speed (less accelerating and decelerating),
-establish a faster turnover and



Stroke Rate vs Stroke Length


Swimming Aids


Finis Swimmers Snorkel 


Tempo Trainer 



Forearm Fulcrum 


Good luck.
Steven Bentley