Go Run Guys

22/10/2026

🏃‍♂️ Let’s talk about strides!

Strides are a simple addition to your training that can make a real difference to how you run.

But why do them, and when should you add them to your training?

WHY DO THEM?

Strides help you develop a smoother, more relaxed running action at faster speeds.

They’re a chance to work on your posture, coordination and rhythm without the fatigue that comes with a hard speed session.

Think running tall, staying relaxed and letting your legs move freely.

It’s not about running as fast as you can. It’s about running well.

WHEN SHOULD YOU DO THEM?

You can introduce strides during your aerobic training once you’re comfortable with your running.

They can then continue through the different phases of training, helping you stay familiar with running faster as your training develops.

They’re a great way to start introducing a little faster running without jumping straight into hard intervals.

HOW DO YOU DO THEM?

After an easy run, find a flat, even stretch of ground.

✅ Start with 4–6 strides of around 15–20 seconds.

✅ Gradually build your speed rather than sprinting from the start.

✅ Focus on good posture, relaxed shoulders and smooth, quick steps.

✅ Walk or jog between each stride until you’ve fully recovered.

You should finish feeling good, not exhausted!

THE BENEFITS?

✔️ Better coordination and rhythm.
✔️ Practice running with good posture and alignment.
✔️ A more relaxed, efficient running action.
✔️ Get your legs used to moving faster without a big training load.

Remember, strides aren’t a race, and they aren’t about hitting a particular pace on your watch.

Keep them relaxed, keep them controlled and concentrate on how you’re running.

Sometimes it’s the little things we add to our training that make a difference over time.

🏃‍♀️ Train with purpose, not just pace.

18/10/2026

Lydiard Monday

Most runners want to get faster, so they look for harder workouts.

Arthur Lydiard looked at it differently.

Before you worry about speed, you first need to build the engine.

That engine is your aerobic system.

Easy running isn’t “junk miles.” It’s where your body adapts. Over weeks and months it increases the number of mitochondria in your muscles, improves capillary density, strengthens the heart, and teaches your body to deliver oxygen more efficiently.

None of these changes happen overnight.

They come from consistently running at an effort you can recover from and repeat day after day.

The stronger your aerobic base becomes, the more training you can handle later, and the more speed you can actually use.

It’s not the exciting part of training.

It’s the important part.

The bigger the base, the higher the pyramid can grow.

15/10/2026

Funny how one video can change the direction of your running.

For me, that video was Timothy Olson at Hardrock 100 in 2014.

It wasn’t because of his Western States wins or the records he’d broken. It was watching him battle his way through Hardrock, struggling but refusing to give in, with the support of his wife helping him get to that finish line.

That stuck with me.

I remember thinking, that’s what I want out of my running. Not just chasing times or trying to win races, but finding out what you’re made of when things get really hard.

In 2019 I ran my first Tarawera 100 miler, and I was hooked.

All because of this video.

Since then I’ve gone on to run plenty of ultras, including 200 milers, but I haven’t forgotten what first got me into it.

I recently told Tim that he was the reason I started running 100 milers, and he’s now followed me on Instagram.

Not going to lie, that’s pretty cool! 😂

At 50, I’ve got my own miles and adventures behind me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the people who inspired me to start in the first place.

Cheers, Tim. 👊

Sometimes you never know how much of an impact you can have on someone you’ve never even met.

🎥 The video that started it all: https://youtu.be/chTYAsYdDZQ

Timothy Olson
GO RUN GIRLS

12/10/2026

LYDIARD MONDAY 🏃‍♂️

One thing I see with runners is that they can struggle with the taper.

You’ve spent weeks, sometimes months, building towards a race. The mileage is there, the hard sessions are done, and you’re starting to feel fit.

Then suddenly we’re running less.

And that’s when the questions start.

Am I doing enough? Am I losing fitness? Should I be doing more?

But the taper is an important part of the training.

The work you’ve done over the last few months isn’t going to disappear because you reduce your training for a couple of weeks.

The idea is to reduce the fatigue you’ve built up so you can actually get the benefit of all that work when you race.

You still run, and you can still keep some intensity in the training. But the overall load comes down.

This is something I like about the Lydiard system.

The training has a progression, and the taper is part of that progression.

You’ve put the work in. You don’t need to keep proving your fitness in the final weeks.

Sometimes the hardest part is trusting the training you’ve already done and letting yourself freshen up.

That’s what the taper is there for.

28/09/2026

LYDIARD MONDAY 🏃‍♂️

Once we’ve done the aerobic work, hills and speed work, we start bringing everything together.

This is a part of the Lydiard system I really like.

We’re not just doing one type of training anymore.

The aerobic work is still there.

The strength we’ve built from the hills is still there.

The speed is still there.

But now we’re starting to put it together in a way that’s more specific to the race we’re training for.

You might have longer efforts at race pace.

You might start putting different types of running into the same session.

You might be running hard when you’re already carrying some fatigue.

And this is where all the earlier work starts to come together.

But again, it’s about when you do it.

We’re not doing this type of training from the start of the programme.

We’ve built towards it.

That’s one of the things I really like about Lydiard.

Each stage has a purpose, and the work you do earlier gives you something to build on later.

Good training isn’t just about having good sessions.

It’s about doing the right sessions at the right time.

Now we’re getting closer to the race.

The training starts to look more like what we’re actually going to need on race day.

LydiardMonday

25/09/2026

Any of our GRG Community wanting to give Hunua 5-0 (25km 50km or relay) a go, pm me for a discount code 🙂 Coach Steffan

Get your ultra on! Ultra Five-0 is a trail running event along the Hunua Traverse Trail in Auckland's Hunua Ranges. The course is 100% runnable and made up of a combination of gravel roads, single...

20/09/2026

LYDIARD MONDAY 🏃‍♂️

Once we’ve built the aerobic base and done the hill work, we can start bringing more speed into the training.

This is where the anaerobic side of the training starts to come in.

But this is where I think it’s easy to get carried away.

Because once you start feeling fitter, it’s pretty tempting to keep making the sessions faster.

More reps.
Less recovery.
Chase the pace.

But the speed work isn’t there just to see how fast you can run.

It’s there because we’ve already built the foundation underneath it.

We’re now teaching the body to use that aerobic fitness at faster speeds.

And that’s an important difference.

The hard sessions have a purpose.

They’re not there just to make you tired. They’re there because they fit into the stage of training you’re at.

That’s why I like the progression of the Lydiard system.

You don’t just add speed because you want to run faster.

You add it when you’ve built enough underneath it to make the speed useful.

Then we keep progressing towards the race.

One step at a time.

That’s the bit I really like about Lydiard.

LydiardMonday