The importance of cadence

Anybody who cycles will know that mashing your gears doesn't work particularly well and you work a lot harder.  So most people trying to aim for a smooth high cadence to help with biking.  But it's probably not the first thing that you would think I should really address this when running. The world's best long distance runners will run around 180 steps per minute (90 on each foot) whether they're running a slow warm up or they're at full race speed.  What does change is the length of the stride.  So there's a few reasons why people do run with a higher cadence.

Why run with a higher cadence?

1) The longer it takes for your foot to make contact back with the ground, the more you're in the air.  The more that you're in the air, the harder you will land and thus be at a greater risk for injury.  So less time in air, less time injure means more running for you

2)When you're taking godzilla strides chances are probably pretty likely that your fat is landing in front of you.  This means that before you can push off you have to move the rest of your body forward.  If you keep your strides constant and frequent, you'll probably do a better job of keeping your feet underneath your body and thus center of gravity.

3)Magical jet pack, okay well maybe not a jet pack, but you're running cadence is not likely to change once you've gotten into a certain rhythm or if you've trained a lot at that cadence.  What you can train and what you can pull out in the final finishing kick is stride length.  Everybody minus differences in height will have about the same maximal stride length.  If you can turn over 2,3,4 or more strides on someone well there you go, nothing is more awesome than outkicking someone at the finish line.

Things to watch out for

There is a point where a cadence becomes too high and you're not actually doing your self any good.

1) Stride length is inevitably going to suffer if you push it too high.  One can run faster by having longer strides or faster cadence.  These usually come at the expense of each other minus the ethiopians and the kenyans who seem to have absolutely no problem doing both.  

2)Focus is key.... cadence stride length cadence stride length oh my.  Yes as you start thinking that you need to do both at the same time.  My recommendation is that you work on cadence first and then up length later because by the time that you have ingrained cadence it will be second nature and you won't suffer a whole lot by increasing distance of your stride

3)Aerobic capacity is a big factor in determining if this is going to work for you.  Working faster although more efficiently is going to require a bit more oomph from your cardiovascular system.  That's the reason why Amrstrong could push such a high cadence in time trials.

How to do it?

People will almost always be able to start off and hit this magical number of 90 per side.  But as the miles pile on and our energy drops off this drops off too.  You have to train your muscles to do this so, get cracking.  Figure out your base cadence by counting how many times a foot hits the ground in a 30 second window, multiply by two to get your cadence.

1. Get forward over your foot strike. Get your hips forward and hold a bend at your ankles. You should feel like you are falling to your next step instead of trying to push your legs through. Practice keeping one foot under or even behind you while letting the other leg just go along for the ride. Then try the other foot and then both feet at same time. · Retest yourself. If you are still under 88-90 rpm than go to step 2
2. Holding the same comfortable pace you have used during your cadence tests, experiment with putting foot down earlier than normal. One way to force you to do this is by running right behind your training buddy. If you let your foot swing through, you will either get kicked or trip your friend and you would never want to do that. Soon you will be running with a better-placed foot and a faster cadence. · Retest yourself. If you are still a few strides away go to step 3.
3. Decrease the vertical component of strides. Run lower. If you are on a treadmill watch your head movement in a mirror. If you head is bouncing up more then an inch or two you are too vertical. · Retest yourself. If you are still a couple strides away go to step 4.
4. Side step: Instead of placing your foot to the front and center of your body; place it to the side. This drill should really help quicken your cadence and keep you from overstriding – check it.
5. Run with shorter and faster strides. This is a no-brainer.

~Cheers Guys