Run Cadence and Form

I'm still far short of 180, but the coach at my tri group has helped me increase my cadence. What's helped me is to work on tempo at slower paces. He will have us do cadence work where most of the run is at a very easy aerobic pace, with very short strides and fast cadence, then intersperse some short intervals of longer strides and faster pace at the same cadence.

Re, 'unnatural.' What seems to work best for me so far is to do pre-run drills that give me awareness of form - then try not to think about it during the run. For forward lean, standing a few inches away from a wall and leaning forward, just to touch the tip of my nose to the wall without falling forward and face-planting the wall. I have also found the "hundred up" to be a great pre-run drill. Then once I start my run, I try not to have a lot of mechanical thoughts. This approach helps me avoid that "unnatural" feeling.

It sounds like you are on track (so to speak...).  I like that you are not thinking about form during your run (but are during drills).

Strides are also a good way to improve form and efficiency.  You will naturally increase your cadence during strides, and often this increase will carry over slightly to your 'normal' running.

In general, the majority of runners will self select the cadence that works well for them.  Personally, the only time I run 90 (180) spm is at marathon pace.  I looked back in my Garmin logs for my last couple of races and workouts and my cadence definitely increases with pace:

At 5K race pace= 93 (186)

At Marathon race pace = 90 (180)

At z2 for 12 miles 86 (172) 45s slower than marathon pace.  This was today's run.

At z1 (1:30 min slower than marathon pace) for 11 miles = 84 (168).

180 is one of those hot topics for the past few years (like barefoot running and heel striking) but its not written in stone.

Of course, I'm just an experiment of 1, and everyone is different, as you can see below.

This chart was put together by Pete Larson over at Runblogger and shows some variability even with the pros.  This is from the 2011 Boston marathon...

(note:  "Step Rate" is cadence)

Also, Alex Hutchinson over at SweatScience has a bunch to add if you are interested. 

Just food for thought.

The local running store teaches this method at a clinic they do. They recorded all of us running and watching it, I realized I was WAY overstriding. In order to slow down to 180, I have to stride smaller - I think of keeping my feet under me at all times, and minimizing any "bouncing". The running store owner says to imagine the ground is hot under your feet and you don't want them in contact with the ground for long.

It may be just me, but I'm in love with this method. With that and a couple of other minor tweaks, my long run pace has gone down by about :30/mile with the same exact effort.

The only problem is now I can't run more slowly at that cadence! Anyone else have this?

1.  yes.  get that cadence up.

2.  at first it will feel unnatural, but after a few months running at 160 will feel like you're bounding instead of running.

3.  you won't be faster at first.  What increasing your cadence does is reduce the pounding and loading of your body, and enable you to ramp up the mileage with a reduced risk of injury.  Worked like a charm for me.

Best way:  Music.  Check out Jog.fm for a collection of songs that have 180bpm, and just run to them.  Or download Cadence.fm for your iphone.

This has been my issue.  I realized in a 5km race a few months ago that I have been running with a very straight legged gait and suspect that has been the root of my hamstring issues.  Started to change my stride length and form, which has naturally increased my cadence, but I too have a heck of a time staying in z2/3.  Did go for a short run last night and actually felt good and relaxed and kept my heart rate down, so maybe it is coming together...

   ABSOLUTELY!!!  Work on getting the cadence up to 180 as this is the optimum cadence.  What I did was find songs that have a beat to jog to that is 180 beats per minute.  YES, at first it felt forced and wierd, but ever since I started doing it, my legs are way less fatigued. 

   I found that a 180 cadence was easy on fast runs but hard on slow runs.  During slow runs it almost felt like I was placing one foot in front of the other.  But it only took a couple of weeks to adapt to the higher cadence. 

   Jack Daniel's training book describes it as "Think of your feet as part of a wheel, not like two pogo sticks bouncing off the ground". 

   Watch any race 5K or longer and you will find that the runners all are within a few steps of the 180 cadence!  It will definately pay off to force your body into this higher cadence.  You will probably just feel awkward the first few runs.

THANK YOU!

I'm not exactly sure of these studies, but if you are taking longer strides it takes more effort.  The more your body is going up and down due to stride being too long, the more effort it takes.  The shorter, faster strides might hurt in the beginning, but after getting used to it will benefit in the long run because much less energy will be exerted.

Professional triathletes focus on this during their runs.  Part of this is because once you are into the run, the legs are tired and shorter strides will become more natural.  Try lifting your legs completely throughout a HIM or Full.  You'll find yourself shuffling more than anything else.  So why not practice shuffling at a higher cadence where you can maintain a faster running speed?

I had a hard time keeping a 160 spm at the beginning of last year.  I have focused on increasing to 180 spm for the last year and I'm finally getting  to that point.  It is a lot of work and it does feel wierd and it does hurt.  You are training your body to run completely different.  But this has all paid off because now I can keep up with the faster guys.  I started 2011 barely able to maintain 9/min miles for 3 miles, now I go out for 13 mile runs maintaining 7:45/miles and keeping 180 spm.  Part of this is because I put a lot of miles in this last year, but I also put claim to practice, practice, practice.

In addition to that, I don't know of anything proving that longer strides take more effort.  Less strides may reduce glycogen/oxygen usage.  Meaning that any loss of mechanical efficiency is counterbalanced by an increase in metabolic efficiency.

Add to that, the fact that scientific dilligence hasn't yet been done on cadence and the entire discussion of running cadence is just speculation.  Think about it from the standpoint of physics.  Wouldn't the weight of the individual come in to play? 

If we see elite runners racing at a cadence of 90, what does that tell us men who weigh 40 lbs more?  Or who race 2:00/mile slower?  Not much.

We need to find our most efficient running form and cadence by running at various target paces on a treadmill and driving down our HR.  In this case HR can be a proxy for oxygen consumption which requires expensive testing to measure.

I personally find that slightly slowing my cadence at a given pace helps.  I do this without bouncing up and down more, I do it by increasing my 'dwell' time on the ground.

What that Science of Running dude in your link says about overstriding in the context of cadence rings true for me. I was definitely reaching out too far in front of my center of mass and heel striking. Increasing my cadence has been part of my improvement in the last couple of months, but I'm inclined to believe this dude that the cadence is more of an artefact of the improvement than the key of the improvement.