Has anyone had success changing their cadence?

That was certainly one of Daniels's points in favor of higher cadences. I think he actually said that, if he took a bunch of beginning runners, many of whom have low cadences, and had them run 100 mpw for a while, some of them would increase their cadences to about 180 or more, and the others would have dropped out with injuries. But I think he overstates things and draws incorrect conclusions about the causal effect of higher cadences on the ability to increase mileage without injury, whereas higher cadence is really more of a general (but not universal) side effect of increasing mileage while avoiding injury.

Somewhat similarly, while running speed is simply the multiple of cadence and stride length, that doesn't mean it's a good idea to try to increase either cadence or stride length in order to run considerably faster; it's much better to focus on running considerably faster. You can then look at changes in cadence and stride length during the course of developing into a considerably faster runner. (Overwhelming, you will find that, at least among distance runners, stride length has increased by a much higher percentage than cadence. Conversely, as runners slow down with age, cadence doesn't change much, but stride length goes way down. But that doesn't mean that you can simply focus on increasing stride length, since the decrease in speed is primarily related to the inevitable decrease in oxygen uptake; the decrease in stride length is essentially just a side effect.)

How is what you are saying not what I said?

No. Increasing cadence is a very specific thing to do. "Avoiding injury" isn't one thing that a person does. Avoiding injury is the result of doing things.

Do more strides and faster hill repeats.

You could also do drills that focus on turnover.

If you keep trying to do it consciously, then it will always feel forced. You need to attempt to change your movement patterns at a neuromuscular level. Plyometrics are usually a good way to do this.

I used to naturally overstride and was a heel striker. I'm sure my leg turnover was slower than it was when I shortened my stride a little bit to land more midfoot. I made this change when I was about 20... Took it very slowly at first, but it came to feel natural pretty quickly. Was an improvement for me.

Arm swing frequency is linked to cadence frequency. So if you increase your armswing frequency you increase your cadence. All arm wrist watches are using this link to calculate stride rate.

This was going to be another question I had. My Garmin Forerunner 235 does a solid job tracking my routes but I've noticed that sometimes when I do weights or pushups with the watch on, it counts a few hundred extra steps. I also used my easy run yesterday to give higher cadence a shot. I didn't have my watches metric on the screen, just consciously thought about taking more steps while out on a 4 mile easy run. The result was a weird feeling at first but then I got into a decent rhythm and ended up going much faster than I thought I was going (about 15 sec/mile faster than I thought and ~35 sec/mile faster than usual easy run pace). When I did check my cadence data on the watch, I'd only gone up to an average of 165. It was an interesting experiment and gave me something fun to think about on a boring easy run but not sure I'll keep trying it in this way.

That's exactly why the focus should be on avoiding injury rather than increasing cadence. When I tell people how to return to running or (less often) increase mileage, I often talk of running gently, as if you're running on eggshells. Soft even surfaces before hard uneven surfaces. Reducing weight (if necessary) before rapidly increasing volume and intensity. Prioritizing increased volume before increased speed. Wear shoes that match the runner. Take minor injuries seriously before they become major. Upslope running before downslope running (That's more of a treadmill thing, though some very good runners have done well by running up hills and walking or riding downhill.) Things like that.

But increasing cadence? Never. That may or may not be a side effect of doing all the right things. Telling someone to increase cadence to get faster is a bit more like teaching a dog to wag its tail at a higher cadence to increase its happiness (although there may be some empirical evidence to support that).

Putting aside a lot of the details that she discusses, I like how well she recognizes that increasing stride length typically decreases cadence (and necessarily decreases cadence if running speed stays constant), but increasing stride length is just about the only way to increase speed. Yet very few people who are told to increase cadence are told the corollary, which is to decrease stride length. Toward the end, she recognizes that increasing stride length will generally increase what I sometimes call "peak loading forces" (which, of course, can increase the risk of certain impact injuries), but also recognizes that increased stride length may also increase what is often referred to as "efficiency" or "economy."

Although it perhaps needn't be said, I am not (of course) advocating increased stride length at the cost of all other things. There are all kinds of factors involved in seeking to increase speed in overwhelmingly aerobic events. But neither is increased cadence a costless goal.

I watched many of her videos during a brief pandemic phase, and it helps that she has a warm and disarming personality, until I realized that I could find no use to anything she says, so it’s just like idle entertainment.

I also realized she’s a devotee of Feldenkrais who used be a scientist until he quit science and started working on his “method”; and she likes to talk about the benefits of “grounding”, supposedly some woo woo about electrical charge and bare feet, so I ran away (shod).

Same thing for me. As I got faster, my cadence increased some on easy runs, stride length probably decreased a bit, but my race cadence was significantly higher.

For reference, it went from ~165 to ~180, 1600 went from 5:00 to 4:10, and I'm 5'11". My mile cadence during a race was about 205

I had a race-specific cadence issue with over-striding that was obvious (and stupid of me) in retrospect, but I could never feel it. Had to see myself on video to diagnose it. Once I did I was able to increase my cadence by 15-20 spm fairly quickly. Sharing if it’s helpful to anyone else who might be making the same mistake:

In races, I always thought (or felt) you want to drive forward with your knee to get power and stride length (from the quad/hip) for speed. You get faster by increasing stride length, right? But distance running is not a modified sprint, and efficient running economy for anything >400m shouldn’t mirror sprinting shapes (unless maybe you’re kicking to the finish line, but even there in the bell lap of the Paris 2024 1500m final Cole, Kerr, and Yared who are going the fastest don’t have much upward knee drive).

Once I just internalized that the sensation you should feel isn’t lifting (re: driving) the forward leg, but actually *dropping* and turning it over quickly, this immediately corrected my overstride and helped me get a tighter, more efficient turnover. It was 100% neuromuscular misunderstanding of how racing should work and feel.

Focusing on leg drop while running to Spotify playlists set to 170-180bpm, took me from running 150-160spm to 170-180spm in only about a week, with better form and economy. Mad at myself for not figuring this out earlier (or would’ve been nice if my HS track and XC coaches didn’t ignore or overlook it at the time). This made a big positive difference for me without needing much drilling. Just a little repetition (and the metronome) to get the feel for it.

I recently discovered cadence and realized mine seemslow, but it just feels natural so I'm going with it and not trying to deliberately change anything. I'm 6'2" 170lbs and would probably describe myself as a more "powerful" runner. I did football and hurdles way back. 36 now.

I often see others running, and to me it looks like they're shuffling. I wonder why they don't have greater range of motion and more knee drive and foot kick after. But in videos, they look much more efficient than me. I probably have a bit wider hips and don't have the rail-thin runner body.

1:18 HM avg cadence of 161; strides/sprints around 200+; 2:50 marathon avg 158 cadence; 5k pace in workouts avg 168-170.

I did. I wouldn't use a metronome. That's annoying. Any running watch made past 2015 is gonna record your cadence. Just take a look at it every now and then and if its lower than what you want, quicken up your steps a bit. I don't see what the big deal is.