How to increase stride length + cadence too high? (200+ spm)

How short are you? 190-200 SPM is a lot. I'd suggest looking up Lydiard Hill circuit to maximize your stride length.

That seems like an excessive stride rate to me, I've always been close to 180 spm dipping into the 170's when I'm not in shape, and to my knowledge most people are close to that range... What type of body are you? Are you shorter/stocky? Do you do any weight sessions to create a more powerful/explosive stride?

Don’t worry don’t change a thing..maybe run many more hilly miles

Stride length for your most economical long distance running isn’t something you train - but you can expect it to shorten with a corresponding increase in turnover with sustained high mileage.

I'm 5'10'' and weigh ~140-145 lbs. I'm a relatively average build, maybe slightly more stocky than skinny. During base, I lift twice a week, legs (squats, lunges, weighted calf-raises) and arms (bench press, military press, curls). Hills are a good suggestion, I don't live in a place with a lot of hills but I can seek out those hills and run them. I will look up the Lydiard Hill circuit. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

illinoisjones wrote:

On easy days my cadence ranges between 190-194 spm. On harder days such as steady-state efforts, lactate-threshold efforts, and speed intervals my cadence is about 200 spm.

That sounds close to my cadence for the past 34 years up until this past summer, when I was actually able to slow it down. My easy cadence was not quite as high at about 184-186, race/hard efforts were around 200, sprint ~290. I was getting comments about my short stride back when I started running in high school in 1985. I would occasionally experiment to try to slow down my cadence over the years, but would still be at 180 trying to go as slow as possible, even when jogging slower than 10 min pace, maybe even jogging in place. I never bought into 180 is good for all paces thing. I wanted to slow it down at slower paces, but just couldn't. I'm average height 5'10" (weight has ranged from 130-170 over the years, weight not correlated with cadence).

I chalked it up to just not having springy legs. I was fast enough for a hobby jogger - at one point was I doing 6 mile tempo runs at sub-5 pace when I was in my early 20s. You sometimes see the odd elite runner, typically Asian women, with really fast, cadence/short strides too, so it didn't seem to be slowing me or them down.

I finally figured out what was causing the high cadence just this past summer. The reason is that I was a totally quad dominant runner who didn't use my glutes. I think it's not necessarily my natural running style. It came about because I came to running half way through high school from road cycling, so it was natural to rely on my quads. I read something about glute use in running, and tried it - wow! I'm feeling muscles in my butt that I've never felt firing before while running, and all of a sudden, my cadence drops to 170, or so, something that I've never been able to get that low before. I can even do an imitation of Walmsley now/ low 160s. My climbing, which has been a weakness for years, is suddenly decent, and my sprint is suddenly a lot more powerful.

That's ridiculously high cadence for a guy of your height I thought Daniel Wanjiru looked weird with his stride but I think he's much shorter than you are. You must be like the previous poster and don't really use your glutes while you're running. Definitely practice on hills more often and maybe gym less often as it's not specific, you may have the strength there in your hips and glutes but your body doesn't know how to use it.

That's your natural biomechanics. Don't obsess over it.

everyone is different wrote:

That's your natural biomechanics. Don't obsess over it.

Right answer. Look at the 1500 world champs this year. As unusual as Timothy Cheruiyot form is, it works.

look at Kawauchi

First thing any elite coach will have you do is fix your form and have you run close to 180spm

Anyone who tells you it’s your “natural running form” is an idiot.

How could they possibly have any insight on your lifestyle? Things that affect your form like time spent sitting, the type of shoes you’ve worn grown up, etc etc

Don’t listen to these noobs wrote:

First thing any elite coach will have you do is fix your form and have you run close to 180spm

Anyone who tells you it’s your “natural running form” is an idiot.

Wrong. Only hobbyjoggers aim for "180 steps per minute."