Is running cadence important?

Recently I’ve been having a Twitter conversation with someone about running cadence and its relevance to running speed and efficiency. It’s quite difficult to explain running cadence, stride rate, running efficiency and speed in 140 characters, so I thought it would be best to try to explain it here.

The term running cadence can be quite confusing and is often misunderstood, however in its simplest form it is the number of times your feet hit the ground in a minute. In essence, the more times your feet hit the ground, the higher your cadence.

Your running cadence is a major factor in establishing your running speed, but cadence and speed are not the same thing. Running cadence will dictate your speed, but there is a difference between the force that powers your body forwards and the speed that you lift and lower your leg onto the ground. Couple running cadence with running form/technique and you have the recipe of an efficient, fast running style!

So why might you want to increase/decrease your running cadence? A lot of runners have a tendency to overstride, this is where your foot lands out in front of your body, landing heel first, which creates a large braking effect – effectively slowing you down with each step. If you want to increase your speed, this is obviously not the ideal way to run!

An increase in your cadence can lead to a reduction in overstriding, which culminates in the foot landing more underneath the body. This results in less of a heel strike, not as much braking (less slowing down) and less impact being felt through the ankle, knee and hips. 

Some runners may have no need to ever look at their own cadence, you may be a fun runner or recreational runner that thinks this is only for professional runners, but I would say that if you have any intention of getting faster, then this might be something you want to address. To check your cadence simply run for 30 seconds and count the amount of times one of your feet contacts the ground (e.g. 35 times), double that number (to make 70) and that is your total number of foot strikes per foot. Cadence is always measured as the total strides per minute for both feet, so your cadence in this example would be 140 strides per minute (SPM).

So what does this mean? What cadence indicates an overstrider? What sort of cadence stops you from overstriding? These are all very valid questions. The Holy Grail of running cadence is often cited as 180SPM, but this is only a guide as everyone is different and cadence does slightly change with different running speeds, therefore a good rule of thumb is 180SPM +/- 10 to 15SPM. Studies have shown that running with a higher cadence of 5 to 10% of your normal cadence is effective in reducing heel strike, braking and impact being felt through the ankle, knee and hips.

But before everyone starts shooting for 180SPM, it must be noted that increasing your cadence is like suddenly increasing your running mileage; it should not be taken lightly. Small steps should be encouraged, and in a structured and progressive manner. If we take the example from above, jumping straight from 140SPM to 180SPM would not be optimal. A more feasible option would be to increase your cadence by 5%, then 10% over a period of time, leading to a more economic fluid running style.

To increase your cadence you will need to practise. You can add in some running drills or short sections of running where you concentrate on contacting the ground with a faster cadence, deliberately lifting the foot off the ground more quickly and spending less time in contact with the ground. This can be quite tiring initially, so practise this in smaller runs first.

Changing your cadence will feel quite strange at first, but if you persevere you will definitely see the benefits. When you’re ready to try this increased cadence on longer runs you may want to invest in a tempo counter or metronome. You can set these devices to your required cadence; they then beep at you indicating when your feet should be hitting the ground to achieve the required stride rate. The beauty of this is you can vary the rate of the beeps as you wish, thus training yourself to increase your run cadence over time.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy testing out your running cadence and potentially trialling a new aspect of running technique. If you'd like more running tips & tricks or a bespoke running training plan check out our Vale Sports Therapy website or contact Mark (Cardiff, Penarth & Barry) directly on 07947 010276.