Cadence – Improve your running with this one technique

One of the most effective ways of improving your running is to run using a simple technique known as cadence. For most runners this is something totally new and the concept at first seems to be a bit alien.

I started using cadence with my clients about 4 years ago, and boy what a difference it makes to running speed. Cadence is the speed of your leg turnover. A simple way to describe it is if you are running count every time one foot hits the ground in one minute. It doesn’t matter which foot you choose to count as long as it is the same foot for the entire minute that you are counting for. For example, if you count your right foot every time it makes contact with the ground for the whole minute you are likely to run around 80 right foot strikes in that minute.

Now that you understand the concept here comes the hard part actually implementing it. If you are tall (over 6 feet), you may find that increasing your cadence is quite hard due to your long limbs but you must try to increase it.

So why is cadence beneficial to running faster?
If you increase your cadence at first you will find it uncomfortable – just like anything that is new and a bit different than what you are used to. Your heart rate will increase and you will find it quite hard work. But persevering will make it a lot easier. By having a quicker cadence you will be making more contact with the ground which enables you to be able to push off the ground more often, therefore picking your speed up. It will also feel as if you are shuffling at first but this over time will also disappear. A faster cadence is far more economical and you will find that your running will speed up and become a lot easier.

Now some of you might be thinking I don’t see any of the top athletes shuffling when they are running on the television. This is because they make running look effortless through years of training. They are running at a very quick cadence which is one of the reasons why they are elite runners. One of the things that you will notice when you watch top elite runners is that they land with their feet directly underneath their body and on the midfoot area of the foot (not the heel). This will lead to a quicker running technique and allow you to increase you cadence.

A simple way to increase your cadence is to run on a treadmill and without increasing the speed of the treadmill increase your cadence by shortening your stride and trying to count the number of foot strikes in one minute. After the minute go back to your natural running style for 2 minutes before increasing your cadence again. Aim for 90 – 95 right foot strikes per minute. When you can achieve this start building up the duration of the fast cadence efforts up to 5 minutes in length.

After one or two months you will start to see that you are running quicker and easier.

Happy running

For more training information please visit my website http://www.ralph-hydes.com