Short strider

I joined my new Sunday morning running crew at 6:30 this morning for an hour-long loop. I'm not an early morning runner, but I definitely see the appeal. To have 7 miles under my belt before 7:30AM is huge, and the stillness of the morning could grow on me.

The story on this run, though, was tightness. No injuries or anything like that, just the realization that if I stretched I could probably be running faster and more comfortably, especially on hills. My stride shortened considerabley on the last, predominantly uphill section as the hammys tightened and IT band on the outside right knee shouted at me.

Anyone out there having good luck incorporating stretching into this running thing? How about stretching while running through longer strides or higher steps, etc? Looking for something to mix into my activities over the winter.