Ah, awesome! Thanks for the feedback 
I felt really good at the end of the intervals! Jogging home wasn't much fun, but I could have kept going forever, had to force myself to walk for cooldown. Was actually a pretty easy workout.
I like the long run formula you did today, haha, was going to comment to say as much in your thread.
hah cool!
Re cues -- the only thing I ever use for myself, other than relax as you say, is to just pay attention to my glutes. Feel like I go a fair bit faster at the same effort when I'm actively using them.
is it sustainable though? or do you want to sustain it - manually active for longer distances? that's the only thing that has me questioning it. i've messed with stuff like that and, I end up discarding it, because it's not something *I* have found to be sustainable for many miles, or at peak performance / competition setting. So, instead of cueing that, i'd probably go the activation route pre-running, or utilize different drills where I focus on that - ie stiff leg shuffling/stiff leg bounds. But then, i'd just let my body do what it does when running.
btw do you know if you go faster or not? in my experience, I actually go slower. I've experimented with it, and when I force extension, my stride frequency ends up dropping slightly and I don't get as much of a stride length increase to compensate/over compensate for it, so my pace ends up actually getting slower, especially as the run goes on.
i'd just verify it with your watch etc, maybe experimenting with some longer intervals of using it vs not using it (~400m), but maybe in separate sessions, not sure.
one of the things you don't want to end up doing is getting a bit more "artificial float" which slows you down, more time in the air without it being beneficial .. ie picture someone next to you who doesn't float, who gets their foot down as you're coming down. So that's just the caution with "forcing something" vs natural mechanics.
i find that "manually activating" pretty much anything messes *me* up.. even manually pumping arms harder, literally. I've gone through manually activating glutes, arms, calves, dorsiflexion, upper back, arch in back, hamstrings, leg swing, recovery leg, knee drive etc.. and i've thrown it all away.. lmfao!
but ya regardless, if it's working that's good.. just make sure it's really working AND it's sustainable for longer distances etc.
peace!
