Improve Cadence

Some people who run faster have a higher cadence, but there is no evidence that a higher cadence will make YOU faster. Just ran at whatever speed you need to and let the cadence fall where it may.

Agree. Cadence is vastly overrated. I'm a 160-165 guy on easy runs and a 175-180 in races but I pay absolutely no attention to that. I just run. I only know my cadence because my Garmin data shows it.

And I am the opposite. My cadence is usually 185+ on easy runs and 200+ when running harder does it matter? Prob not. Smoove is faster than my arse ever will be.

Runrincerepeat wrote:

And I am the opposite. My cadence is usually 185+ on easy runs and 200+ when running harder does it matter? Prob not. Smoove is faster than my arse ever will be.

Let me put it in this perspective, my friends are a little shorter than me & their stride is not as long as mines but there cadence is much faster than mines. I don't over stride but my stride is a long loping one. I feel that I waste some energy too

I shortened mine up when I started back running last jan after a 13 year layoff. Reason was I figured it would allow me to run more miles eventually w less injuries as I was injury prone when younger. It has so far worked out. No serious injuries and i went from 0miles to a high of 101 in 16 months. I am nursing a little tendonitis atm but that's from my stupidity.

I am 6ft and I run w a guy sometimes who is 5-7 and has a wayyyy longer stride than me.

Do not deal with cadence. Do not shorten your stride. Allow your body to decide the correlation between cadence and stride length according to the speed you dictate.

My average stride length on a moderate run is 1.4m I'm not sure how good is that but nonetheless I guess it's not all that . Should I focus more on lifting my knees?

The cadence of your thoughts while running is the most important aspect to master.

Some prefer to run on emptiness, some zen-like mindfulness, some off rhythms of their heartbeat. Myself, I have chosen the difficult cadences of disappointment and despair which I channel into running on "Pure Hate".

Higher cadence = less impact per stride = less force through the joints and tendons = reduced chance of injury.

That being said any changes should be made gradually and cadence is only part of the story, but to dismiss it entirely and say just do what your body naturally does makes no sense. There is a technique to running and just because most people don't bother to learn it doesn't mean it's not important. You don't throw someone into a swimming pool and ask them to just listen to their body and swim do you?

i know if my cadence is 186 or above I will meet my goal in my next race, if not , I won't.

SImple data point to look , a good cue, like relax shoulders, or whatever. Seems useful, and I practice by cadence sometimes. It certainly is not a bad cadence for me , just easy to slip a few down at the distance at hand and it's a pretty easy thing to look at and say, go up a few steps and you are on task.

Also , I have a little niggle in my hip. Not when I keep a few posture cues and it seems like cadence is a part of that. So, it's not just a question of whether cadence can help with injury prevention, sometimes it can help with the correction and cure of current problems. It has helped with some foot/ankle trouble. No doubt about that.

Cadence is somewhat important. You don't want to be plodding along.

However there is no "one cadence fits all". All you have to do is watch the Olympics and see that runners of the same speed are running with different cadence. This is largely a Physics problem. A tall runner with longer legs will turn over more slowly than a shorter runner with shorter legs at the same speed. The legs are a pendulum.

Example: watch Evan Jager running next to Ezekiel Kemboi. Are their legs moving at the same cadence when their speed is the same?

Do strides consistently to work on neuromuscular development (cadence, leg placement, landing, push off, etc). This will help your efficiency and may help your cadence if your physics are wrong.

If your cadence is too high that could mean your ground contact time is too short and you aren't loading sufficiently.

Don't focus on cadence too much. Just run baby.

Yeah, it's about injury prevention. I'm 5' 8" and have same strife length as OP. I overstride a little. No major injuries as a result, so a moot point.