How can I lengthen my stride

[TheoriginalLEM]

A few questions for all you ladies (and gents) who know what you are doing (and those that dont)

I have been running since July, i don't run regularly enough - twice a week at present. I am 45 and on the large size (size 20). I can run quite a long way and manage 10k cross country every other week or so, otherwise its about 6k.

The problem i have is that i run really slow - DP says it is too slow

I tend to make pigeon steps, to be fair i only have short legs and i guess my walking speed is pretty slow too. I have tried to stride out but just can't seem to manage to do it without increasing the speed and getting knackered. I sort of want to improve my technique as right now i feel i am probably putting in more effort than DP does but he is running much faster than me. He is overweight too so its not like he is fitter, I would say i am probably the fittest.

I do want to push myself more, faster over shorter distances maybe, i don't get out of breath at all when i run and manage to sing along to my walkman so i must have energy reserves in there somewhere.

We wont mention my stupid hips

[CMOTDibbler]

You don't want to lengthen ypur stride, you want to turn your feet over faster. Try doing little intervals where you go faster for two lamposts, then back to normal pace etc

[suzannecaravaggio]

Agree with CMOT

[whatdoIget]

As CMOTDibbler has said, it's not recommended by running types that you lengthen your stride as this can lead to injury. I'm sure you'll get faster in time. It's an amazing achievement to run at any size sbd age, but I think even more so when you're a bit bigger (I started running at size 20 so not being patronising)
Your dp doesn't sound very supportive or helpful - doesn't he like you running?

[suzannecaravaggio]

Men tend to be faster than women at any level of fitness
I am easily as fit as my partner but he's a much faster runner

He's very supportive and happily runs with me at my comfortable pace

Running is hard you're doing great
He should be cheering you on!

[TheoriginalLEM]

Ah, to be fair he is supportive and i only started running to support him when he entered the marathon (he didn't get in). We sometimes run together but he finds it too hard to run at my pace which is fine because i prefer him to piss off and leave me to run "alone". I do run really slow (you are looking at nearly an hour to run 5k). Will do some shorter runs and do the lamp post thing. He does run and walk but once i start walking I can't run again so i just plod along like a snail.

[whatdoIget]

Glad he's supportive and sorry to blacken his character