Running cadence...

Yesterday, a friend of mine (@tippettsimon) tweeted about adjusting his running cadence. Now when it comes to running, I tend to listen to Simon - he's got quite a bit of experience. And when I read his tweet, I had to Google it to find out what he was tweeting about - what the hell is a running cadence? Once Googled, I realised that by coincidence on Tuesday night's run I had tried the exact same thing. I just didn't know the term running cadence to describe it.

Cadence is defined as the beat or measure of something rhythmic. A running cadence is another term for a stride rate. Elite athletes have a running cadence of 110 (that's 110 left or right footfalls in a minute). Seasoned runners should aim for 90+.

I have often thought that other runners seem to move their legs quicker than mine and so, on last Tuesday night's run, I quickened my pace. Banished was my giraffe like langourous cantor to be replaced by a squirrel like scuttle. I've no idea of the cadence of my giraffe nor, for that matter, the cadence of my squirrel. What I do know is that I consistently ran faster that night and I knocked a good couple of minutes off my run.

I repeated the exercise tonight and, again, I managed to reduce my time. I guess it's obvious; if you move your legs faster then you are going to run faster. What surprises me most is that the energy spent to do so isn't nearly as much as I'd expected. I wasn't gasping for breath as I thought I would be and this made me wonder how lesiurely my runs must have become over the last year or so (none so leisurely as Rob Sloane's runs).

I don't have any fancy pedometers or running watches to measure my running cadence. I have a Polar watch with a stopwatch that I can never switch off and I used to have a Nike+ pedometer but it kept giving inaccurate readings or missing runs. It was infuriating and took a lot of the pleasure out of running. But without such equipment I really have no idea what my running cadence is. I think tomorrow I will go to a music shop at lunchtime and buy a cheap electronic metronome so I can set my running cadence. Look out for the scuttling squirrel around the Bay.

You can read more about running cadences at Marathon Training Tips.