Quick Tip – Games to play when running with someone slower
You are a good person. You have agreed to go for a run with someone who is significantly slower than you are. What can you do to make it more fun for you? What can you do to get some workout benefit?
First, don’t stress that slower runner out. Enjoy the company. Be supportive. Talk to them and ask if it would be ok for you to play some game on the run so that you can get some benefit from it.
Number One – Bounding
One of the ways you can run slower and work harder is to practice your bounding strides. You might do 3 or 4 of these in the run. It works great for building strength especially for hills. How do you bound? Just like the name implies you bounce with an exaggerated stride from foot to foot. Try to get some hang time on each push off. Long, slow, big strides with explosive push offs.
You won’t be able to do this for more than a couple minutes because it’s hard. You’ll appreciate being able to recover with the slower pace your friend is running.
Number Two – Hill charges
If you have a loop with some elevation gain in it you can leave your friend at the bottom and attack the hill. Push hard up the hill to the top, then turn around and jog back down to meet your friend. Repeat this on each hill. This should allow you to burn some energy and get some benefit.
Number Three – Backwards and sideways running
Now you have to be sensitive to your partner here. Running backwards while they are working hard to run forwards can be seen as a slap in the face. Have some consideration here. But if they are ok with it you can throw in a little backwards and sideways running. This will strengthen your legs and help your balance.
It would be a shame for you to offend a slower friend or a new runner so communicate with them before you do this. If you can keep it in the spirit of play it should be ok. You can get the pleasure of their company and get some benefit from the training.
A) love the turtle
B) Whenever you are in Florida (North Florida) I would love to run with you – we have plenty of hills on which you can do repeats while I slog away with my 10+ minute miles. Come on down!
Today would be a good day to be in Fla
Those are great ideas. It is hard to run with someone slower but so important we do. There was once when we were that person.
The Concord Runners do what they call “Circle runs” on their Saturday morning group run. The faster runners go for a half-mile or so, then circle up to wait for the slower runners to arrive. It keeps the pack together, but the faster runners are always stopping while the slower runners never get a rest, so the ability difference just keeps getting larger as the run goes on. However, they often route the run by Walden Pond in the summer, and everyone gets to swim!