Best Running Stride Is Your Running Stride

Long stride, short stride, in-the-middle stride, which one is best for runners? After much debate and a good deal of research, experts have come to believe that the most economical stride is the one you choose. Gretchen Reynolds reports in the New York Times that researchers at Brigham Young University studied the strides of expert and inexperienced runners and see would happen if they tweaked them. The researchers measured runners’ strides (on a treadmill) as well as their oxygen intake, then altered the runners strides by having them listen to a metronome while they ran, eventually increasing the beat 16 percent, all the while measuring oxygen intake. What did they find? Any change of pace, faster or slower, usually made the runners less efficient. The moral of the story? Just run the way you feel like running.