Cadence - what does it all mean? (Read 3400 times)

If it were me, it would have to be the left foot. But then, I was in marching band...

Yeah, I think mine comes from the military.

Generally, most recreational runners will benefit from a faster cadence than what they normally run. A faster cadence helps prevent over striding and will enable you run at a faster pace with the same effort. I used to be a classic over strider and when I decided to work on improving my form I found out that my cadence was around 155 steps per minute. I spent an entire summer working with a book entitled Programmed to Run by Thomas Miller and progressed from 155 to 180 steps per minute. As a result, my natural pace has increased, I experience fewer injuries and my shoes even last longer since I no longer land on my heels. Increasing my stride rate was very difficult at first. I experienced the same aches and pains as the OP and raising my cadence even a small amount felt very unnatural, but over a period of months I gradually became used to the faster rate. Now, three years later I don't even think about it. Whenever I check my cadence it is almost exactly 180 steps per minute regardless of pace. Increasing my cadence is the single most beneficial improvement I've made since starting to run and I would recommend it to anyone looking to improve their form. As I said, it was not an easy thing to do and it didn't happen over night, but it was definitely worth the effort. Tom

Jeffgoblue... I got the Garmin 305 from DH for Christmas. Thought about ordering the foot pod as I saw it on Amazon for $29.99....you got a good deal. Its now more than $70!

Now that I know it does cadence, I may use it all the time, not just on the treadmill. No, I'm not gonna start obsessing about 180, but I'd like to keep an eye on it, particularly during harder workouts.

He really wanted to know what his cadence was before he got the footpod, but being a Michigan alumnus he couldn't count past 10 on his own. (Hopes that no one knows where I went to college)

He really wanted to know what his cadence was before he got the footpod, but being a Michigan alumnus he couldn't count past 10 on his own. (Hopes that no one knows where I went to college)

Nicely done, Drew. Since you have scoreboard on us for 6 out of the last 7 years, I won't bring up last night. Except to say that since U-M has won 7 out of our last 8 against the SEC, maybe they should just send us instead of you guys when you make it to BCS titles games. BTW, was rooting for the Buckeyes and disappointed/dismayed with the loss. U-M and OSU wins over the SEC would have gone a long way to repairing the Big Ten's reputation. At least TBDBITL looked good.

OSU should be banned from championship play. Dear God, I've never seen a team backslide worse than that in a season. And to make it two years in a row.... As for Jeff's data gathering.... pffffffftttt....

Thx for the feedback. Interestingly I counted my rate doing some intervals and the rate was 90 and it didn't feel so awkward. Maybe initially I was trying to run at an easy pace whilst trying to keep the cadence up. Mutually exclusive I think. Methinks I may be getting too technical and over analysing when all I really want to do is run and maybe improve my times while i'm at it.

Will the Garmin actually provide that stat live or can you only see it when you download the data? I've looked through the options for the display fields and haven't found an option for this.

I have a Forerunner 305 and it can provide this stat live. Three fields actually -- Cadence, Cadence Average, and Cadence Lap. Though I decided not to turn it on -- I don't need to fret about it, I can just check it out later.