How do I get to 180 strides per minute?

Read Explosive Running. your technique or form could be keeping you from doing it

Get your friend to tow you at 25mph behind his car.

Technique is something you learn over time, not by trying to force it. Suggestions:

1) Hills. What hill? Any heeeeeeel!: Hills give you a more powerful stride, increases glute strength and force you to become more effecient.

2) Sprints. 2-3 x a week: Sprinting forces you to be more effecient and effects can transfer over to everyday running.

Alan

Jim Hunt has published some interesting articles and a video entitled "neural training" He was the college coach of Marc Conover and a few other greats whose names escape me. I read his article in USAT&F's American Track and Field publication.

this sounds like a case of mixing up cause and effect. i would say the case is that you run 180 strides per minute because you are fast, not that you run fast because you run at 180 strides per minute.

Even the painfully slow can get to 180 rpm. Read Daniels and he talkes about the begenning running class his wife and him teach.

So cause that effect :)

just f***ing run for f***ing goodness sake. if you are worrying about your strides per minute then you have problems.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but I was looking at getting my cadence up to Daniels' recommended 180 and having a lot of trouble until I switched to running in racing flats. My footstrike changed from the heel to the forefoot, and running near 180 was suddenly automatic. My husband had the same experience. Now I run all my miles in H-streets and I've stayed healthier than usual, although I still get some aches and pains here and there. Again, not necessarily for everyone, but it might be worth considering.

biggity bam wrote:

just f***ing run for f***ing goodness sake. if you are worrying about your strides per minute then you have problems.

yea seriously...just run meng.

In the last few months I have moved to running in the Mizuno Precision and Nike Frees. I know they aren't flats, but aren't the 12+ oz shoes I used to run in. We'll see if that helps.

my background: i was taking about 165-170 steps per minute until 9 months ago. a few weeks before the boston marathon last year i began having severe pain in my left foot/heel. 'twas plantars fascitis. i went to the doctor a few weeks later, and amongst his many suggestions was that i should shorten my stride. against his advice, i made the move to lightweight shoes (gradually). i also re-read Daniel's 180 steps per minute advice. In an attempt to get to that magic 180 number, i literally counted my steps every few minutes during runs. I quickly realized that in order to get to 180, I had to shorten my stride. It felt really, really odd for a few weeks. However, after a few months, my stride felt normal again, I've stopped counting almost entirely(except for once in a while during long runs when I'm feeling bored), but I generally take 183-4 step per minute when running easy. so basically, try counting, and force your stride to adjust - might make you more efficient.

rmcleary hit the nail on the head. Try to shorten your stride. You don't have to be at exactly 180, but moving from 160 to the low 170's will make you a more efficient runner.

Add to that: try and still keep your heel kick high(ish). This basically forces you to land midfoot - there isn't enough time to land on your heel and bring your heel up and run 180 steps per minute.

Pick up a copy of PROGRAMMED TO RUN. The key is to lean slightly forward. Not much, just a little. A degree or two. Let yourself fall forward very slightly, then pick up your stride rate and keep up. Think Frank Shorter in the '72 10,000 final--push off your toes a little. More of a midfoot strike.

I started where you are and very quickly got to 170 (85 per foot per minute). Adding in the very slight forward lean and more midfootish strike, I'm suddenly up to 87-88 per minute (174-176). Once that feels natural, I can move on. Give it time!. But also recognize that each incremental increase in stride rate will feel a little off at first.

Think Lance Armstrong powering up the mountains. Think Roadrunner leaving Wiley E. Coyote in the dust, legs-a-whirl.

get on a tmill and have someone count for you. shorten steps until desired spm reached.

At the beginning of May 2005 I was in the high 150s on most runs. I also read the Daniel's stuff and began working on my cadence.

My advice is as follows:

First — and this is similar to what others have already said — shorten your stride and begin landing midfoot rather than heel. In fact, pay attention to other aspects of your form, too, like good heel lift.

Second, do it incrementally. Don't shoot for everything at once. E.g., if your training runs are now consistently at 160, work for something just slightly beyond your comfort zone. For me even 164-66 was initially hard, but I forced myself to do that until it became comfortable. Once it feels more natural, bump it up approx. another 4 strides p/min.

Third, consider little "breathers" during your easy runs. If running at a clip of, say, 168, starts to feel laborious after a several minutes and your form starts to break up, back off for a minute or two and then up the tempo again.

Fourth, do some buildups/strides at the end of easy runs: 60-100 meter stuff, focusing on controlled and quick turnover. Even 2-4 x can help.

Fifth, don't be nervous about taking an off day here and there where you slow your cadence down just a little. I've found that some days I need that in order to consolidate the gains I've achieved.

Sixth, do as Daniels says and use easy runs in particular to work on your cadence. It's relatively easy to hit, say, 200 footstrikes p/min. on higher speed reps, but pulling it off on easy runs is much tougher.

It took me about 6 months to go from the high 150s to 180 on my easy runs, but overhauling my cadence and form was completely worth it. I recover faster, am a more efficient runner, and have cut my times dramatically. I just wish that someone had shared this with me years ago.

Another thing I noticed is that once the neuromuscular training is cemented, it doesn't leave you the way aerobic fitness does. Not paying attention to some fundamentals of training, I overdid it and came down in early September with the first stress fracture I've ever gotten. I was down for 8 weeks and didn't do a lick of cross-training (I HATE swimming and pool running). When I started training again, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that cadence-wise I picked up almost exactly where I left off.

Good luck.

I don't know if i agree completely with the 180 per minute, that seems like a rather arbitrary number, it doesn't take into account leg strength. I will cite myself as an example, I have larger than average legs for a runner. As follows my legs are much stronger than most of the members of my team. having counted my stride at varying speeds i am anywhere between 168-170 strides per minute. Their turnover is much faster than mine, but again i am as fast or faster than almost all of them. I am a midfoot striker by a forced change, and this turnover rate came about naturally after the change. It is said the body will do reasonably well at finding its own most efficient technique/turnover when given the chance. I feel forcing oneself to try and eek out an extra 10-15 steps would be a needless adjustment were ones turnover already fairly high. Just a counterpoint to some good arguments

i've used this technique over the years and found that some of it can do with how fast and relaxed you also swing your arms - without over-reaching.

About this time last year I picked up a SF and got onto spinning at the gym. On a low(ish) resistance its not that hard to get to 120 rpm and essentially hold that t/o for the duration of the class (45-90min). For the non-injured, its probably a safe way to build up high cadence.

- PS

This worked for me http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--KORMM1