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

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.

I think you're right on. For me at least, a cadence of 90 rpm (180spm) is very natural when running intervals or other fast running. And very unnatural when running easy. And therein lies my whole beef with the 180 thing -- the data were gathered based on very fast people running very fast, and may not be applicable to the rest of us running slow. MTA: Damn, Scout beat me again. I need a faster cadence when I type.

(like an earworm, eh?)

Whenever I run, I have a cadence-meter going through my head. Sing with me JK. Snape. Snape. Severus Snape. Snape. Snape. Severus Snape...

Cue the pipe bomb.

I think you're right on. For me at least, a cadence of 90 rpm (180spm) is very natural when running intervals or other fast running. And very unnatural when running easy. And therein lies my whole beef with the 180 thing -- the data were gathered based on very fast people running very fast, and may not be applicable to the rest of us running slow. MTA: Damn, Scout beat me again. I need a faster cadence when I type.

For me, a cadence of ~180 is MOST BENEFICIAL when I'm running in slow/recovery mode. It just feels like there's less stress on my legs when I take shorter, quicker strides.

I think the key words in his phrase are "for me."

... For me at least, a cadence of 90 rpm (180spm) is very natural when running intervals or other fast running. And very unnatural when running easy.

I hear you on that. Right now I'm always running real easy, and when I've tried upping the cadence to 180 at the same pace, my heart rate goes up at least 5 bpm. The one thing that I've noticed is that at 180 or so, my center of gravity (CG) doesn't move up and down much... no bouncing, just running even. IMHO that's the big benefit of 180 cadence... you just have to learn to run relaxed with a footstrike under the CG at that rate.