Improve your mechanical efficiency. Use targeted running drills like high knees and butt kicks to reduce energy leaks and increase forward propulsion.
## Introduction Getting faster over middle and long distances comes down to two things: physiological capacity and mechanical efficiency. Sports science is clear on this: among runners with similar maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max, your endurance engine), running economy is what decides — that is, how much energy you burn at a given pace.
And the differences are huge: efficiency differences of up to 30 percent are possible. An economical running style can boost your speed by five to ten percent at the same effort level — over an hour of running, that's several minutes handed to you for free.
Running economy isn't purely a product of your cardiovascular system — it's above all a function of your neuromuscular coordination. If you run unevenly, you waste energy on every step through braking forces and compensatory movements.
This is exactly where running drills (run ABC) come in: technical exercises that isolate, exaggerate, and refine individual components of your running stride. This programs highly efficient movement patterns directly into your muscle memory, reduces energy loss, and increases your propulsion.
## What You Need - A flat, even route: Find a traffic-calmed, flat asphalt road, a track, or a short, even patch of grass about 20 to 50 meters long. - Rested muscles: Technique training requires extremely high neuromuscular freshness and focus. - Solid running shoes: Use your regular running shoes; on a track, lightweight trainers with less cushioning also work well for more direct ground feedback.
### 1. The Mandatory Warm-Up Technique training is intense on your tendons and ligaments — so never do running drills completely cold.
Jog yourself in very easily for about 10 to 15 minutes (at around 50 to 60 percent of your maximum heart rate) — at a comfortable chatting pace, where you barely start sweating.
### 2. Ankling This exercise trains the spring-like behavior of your foot and ankle complex. Move forward in tiny steps and roll your feet quickly and deliberately from ball to heel, while your toes barely leave the ground. The standing leg stays extended.
The goal is a very short ground contact time, to massively improve the elastic energy return of your Achilles tendon.
### 3. Heel Flicks For heel flicks, alternately snap your lower legs sharply so your heels kick toward your glutes. Pay meticulous attention to keeping your thigh pointing as vertically downward as possible, staying slightly leaned forward at the hip.
This exercise strengthens your hamstrings, trains a high stride frequency (cadence), and prepares you for an efficient leg cycle.
### 4. A-Skips A-skips are the key to an explosive knee drive. Raise your knees in a dynamic, high-frequency motion up to an angle of about 70 to 90 degrees — the thigh comes up almost horizontal.
Extremely important: actively pull your toes toward your shin (dorsiflexion) and always land on your forefoot. This "pawing" motion teaches you to actively plant your foot under your center of mass, instead of landing out in front of your body and braking.
### 5. Carioca / Side Shuffle Move sideways and alternately cross your legs in front of and behind your body. Your upper body stays stable, and your arms actively move along with you.
This exercise targets the stabilizing muscles in the frontal plane, especially the gluteus medius and hip adductors. These muscles hold your pelvis stable during the single-leg stance phase and prevent it from tilting sideways.
### 6. Bounding Bounding is an exaggerated, ground-covering running motion that maximizes the horizontal and vertical push-off phase. Push off the ground explosively, drive the swing leg up with a strong knee lift, and exaggerate your arm swing along with it.
This exercise trains your legs for maximum power — and thus for a noticeably more dynamic running stride.
## Common Mistakes - Running drills while fatigued. The most fatal mistake. If you put technique drills at the end of a hard steady run, physical and mental exhaustion programs faulty patterns into your muscle memory. Fix: always do running drills fresh and rested. - "Sit-running" and leaning back. Especially during high-knee runs and skips, many people collapse at the hip or lean their upper body backward. Fix: stand tall, brace your core, run with a minimal forward lean from the ankle. - Neglecting arm swing. The arms set the pace. If they hang passively, you lose balance and artificially limit your leg frequency. Fix: bend them and swing powerfully in parallel with your direction of travel.
## Safety Notes The running-drill exercises — especially the forefoot landing during skips and the plyometric nature of bounding — put extreme strain on the calf and Achilles tendon.
If you're not used to this training, don't overdo it: start with just 10 to 15 minutes, once or twice a week. If you feel a sharp pain in your tendons, stop the exercise immediately.
## Pro Tip To make sure the neuromuscular patterns you've learned properly carry over into your real running motion, end every running-drill session with 3 to 5 strides.
Run smoothly over about 80 to 100 meters and build up to a controlled sprint — and focus fully on clean knee drive, foot strike, and arm swing from the running drills you just did.
### How often per week should I do running drills? Once or twice a week is plenty to program new movement patterns into your muscle memory. More isn't automatically better, since the drills put real strain on your tendons and calves. Build them in right after an easy warm-up, never at the end of a hard run.
### Can I fit running drills in right before every steady run? Only after a proper 10-to-15-minute warm-up — never completely cold. Right before a long, easy run is fine as long as you're fresh. Before hard tempo sessions, or once your legs are already tired, skip them.
### Why does my calf hurt after running drills? A-skips and bounding put extreme strain on the calf and Achilles tendon, especially if you're not used to the drills yet. That's normal as long as it feels like typical muscle soreness. Start with just 10 to 15 minutes and only increase the dose over several weeks.
### Do running drills actually make me faster? Yes, indirectly, but measurably. The drills improve your running economy — how much energy you burn at a given pace — and efficiency differences of up to 30 percent between runners come from exactly this. Over an hour of running, that can add up to several minutes saved.
### Do I need a track for these drills? No, a flat, traffic-calmed road or an even patch of grass 20 to 50 meters long works completely fine. What matters more than the surface is being rested and focused — that's what determines clean technique, not the ground underneath you.