High Vs Low Cadence Running | Is There A Perfect Cadence For Running Speed?

Running cadence is the number of steps you take per minute, combined with stride length, which determines how fast you travel. It would therefore seem logical that the higher your running cadence the better? Mark and Heather are going to put their run cadence to the test!

Running cadence is the number of steps you take per minute combined with stride length determines how fast you travel. It would therefore seem logical that the higher your running cadence the better.

That’s true to a certain extent but it isn’t quite that simple. Mark and Heather are going to look in more detail at the effect of a low cadence compared to a high cadence on our running gait efficiency.

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Do you have a high or a low run cadence? What works for you? Let us know!

[thetroublewithmavis]

150 even for faster runs. My partner suggested a long time ago that I change my cadence but I never really thought about it too much. It just sounded harder to be fast when stepping more often. Had to try it after watching this though. This morning destroyed my 5km best with an average cadence of 170. Naturally lead to a much better posture too. Lesson learned. Really enjoy the videos from this channel; entertaining and inspiring.

[germandelarosa]

I was having trouble increasing my run cadence. I found a great tool to help me dial in my 180 spm cadence.
I run with music and listen to 180 bpm playlists on Spotify. I just sync my running cadence to the beat of the music and I found that my running pace improved without any extra effort.

[brianm]

These videos come out just in time as I'm contemplating not going for my run. Cheers guys keep them coming!!

[jonb]

I've found over my 40+ years of running that most efficiency gains are made during the flight phase, when the foot is in the air. Apparently, the ultimate way to do this is exemplified by Letesenbet Gidey, who actually starts the leg forward very fast after toe-off, allowing her to make the second half of her flight toward the next landing at a quite leisurely effort. She looks like she's running slow when viewed from in front, very fast when viewed from behind. Brilliant!

[robinbhairam]

I’d just like to say a huge thank you ...particularly to Heather. I’ve been running a great many years including a couple of Marathons and after a bit of lay off I started again but I just could not get going it was hard, heavy legged, painful knees etc etc. I was on the verge of calling it a day. However I decided one last shot and to go back to first principles using GTN as my main source of rebuilding. A couple of priceless video’s were Heather’s shoe and form recordings (There are many others including stretches and foam rolling). Having now invested in a pair of Cloudstratus, my running has come on leaps and bounds. I won’t bore you with numbers, but suffice to say I’m absolutely back in love with running and starting to clock up some good miles. So a huge thank you GTN!! (CAVEAT: I should add I’m not suggesting any magic bullets here, like I said, I’ve been running years, and I listened carefully to their advice and followed it safely. Still needed to put the graft in ... but this is one hell of an amazing resource provided by accomplished athletes... for whom we should be humbled and grateful to).

[nissanbloom]

Nice video, it would be interesting to see mark's journey to higher cadence, and when he adapts to a higher cadence if his heart rate decreases a little. As atm he is using slightly different muscles which he is not used to using, hence this may be causing the heart rate to increase. Also, it would be great to see a similar video however off a steady bike and comparing which cadence is best for brick sessions and thirdly the effect of different bike cadences on the run/run cadence.

[mirekpyrsz]

Cadence is the thing I am currently working on. As a 6'6 tall runner my cadence was 150 for good few years. Few weeks ago I started working on it to improve my cadence. I do my runs with 160-165 cadence right now, which completely changed my running style. I went from heel striker to forefoot which is good. If I will be able to do marathons with cadence around 165 that would be good for me and I believe I''ll run faster! :)

[rusteetrombone]

I can (and often do, esp on longer runs) change my cadence and maintain the same pace. I feel like it uses slightly different muscles, so I can rest my muscles with a high cadence and rest my cardio with a lower cadence/longer stride

[logiconabstractions]

Fantastic work, love it.

I've been trying to up my cadence a little bit the past few months. I've had back issues, and it does feel as if a slightly higher cadence for me lessens the impact force a little bit (perhaps better footstrike is part of it). Feels like my back has to work less in order to keep everything stable/balanced. I've been doing physio as well, so hard to say if it's the cadence and/or physio work that is starting to make a difference.

My endurance run sort of pace (~5min/k) is @ ~175, while I was closer to 170/high 160s for that pace before. Not a huge difference, but I do feel it a little bit. I wasn't sure at first, it felt a little bit like I was deliberately sabotaging my stride (felt like constantly breaking). Not anymore, and the more it goes the more I actually quite the mechanics of it.

I've also been doing partly minimalist shoes & partly regular trail shoe runs. On minimialist shoes, my cadence for the same pace naturally gets closer to 180, whereas I tend to be between 170-175 on regular trail shoes. THat's not a deliberate effort on my part, that's just the data that strava gets me if I compare the runs with different shoes on.

[hufemeve]

So after a long injury I changed my running technique for high cadence, which helped me to recover faster and improved enormously my running experience, but I had never recorded it, so I got my new running watch and after 3 running sessions of 5K, the watch said my average cadence is 195 spm

[TheMoonSeesMe]

Is interesting that ultra runners like Jim Walmsley run in the 150-170 range. Even on flat. I think there could be a long run efficiency at a slower cadence.

[carf]

It might be worth looking at cadence at different paces, e.g. the same cadence at 6, 8, and 10 mph and seeing what the effects are.

[paddywiggle]

There are ways to increase stride length without physically reaching farther out with your foot. Knee drive, ankle drag, and other key techniques will increase your time in the air, and thus, stride length.

[tylercarey]

When I started running my cadence was 140-145spm . After about a year of running consistently my cadence now averages 160-165spm for easy runs and 170-175spm for harder efforts . I've never tried to change my cadence but I feel it is something that improves over time as you become a more experienced and efficient runner.

[alanshrimpton]

My HM PB (1:34) Average cadence 193. Stride length 1.17m. I'm 162cm tall (short) and 57 years old (old). Slow runs at 5:30min/km is usually 182 cadence. Works for me.

[st]

I've tried to increase my cadence to 180, but my body just doesn't like it; it feels more tiring. I'm not landing on my heels, so I'm not going to worry too much. Varies between 160 (slow runs)-170 (5K run), though faster when increasing pace to finish a run.

[KlemenSuligojTri]

Could you please explain how Dan Lloyd will be able to run a sub 1:30h Half-Marathon if his plan contains only a maximum of 6 km at his goal HM race pace and a maximum of 20 km as the longest run?

[jabaerga]

I use the beginning of the fourth movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony to set my cadence to approximately 180. Allegro/Allegro vivace tempo. Before I used a small metronome to start increasing the cadence and eventually I could hear the music when doing a cadence close to 180.

[matthiaswuest]

I'm 183 cm with pretty long legs and when I first started running my cadence was around 160 for normal runs (always much higher on the treadmill though...). I steadily focused on increasing it, now my go-to training cadence is around 172 and my threshold/race cadence is 180-185. I've found that strides of 200+ spm at the end of easy runs are very helpful for me to make moderately higher cadences feel more comfortable. Similarly I always do my speed intervals at 190+ spm, it makes the threshold cadence feel super comfortable.