180 running cadence was an observation made at the olympics of distance runners where a lot of them were around that cadence. It is by no means something you need to be aiming for on an easy run

there are a lot of factors that go into cadence, namely height(leg length), flexibility and the speed you are running at. Coincidentally a lot of Olympic runners have relatively similar heights and flexibilites and speeds they are running at

As for a person who is running and is wondering what cadence means. If you are extreme heel striking you may be overstridng and a higher cadence is something you can focus on. Else I wouldn't put any merit in it. Nothing wrong with a 165 cadence on an easy run.

In my opinion cadence may be a tool you can use to fix a problem but its not something you should be caring about if you don't have a problem

Cadence is something I look at on my watch after a hard effort. Race pace, .5mile/1k repeats, 400s etc... I also had to shorten my stride and learned to land on my mid foot as I was over striding and having issues. Sometimes on easy run I’ll in my head think ( posture, cadence, arms, etc) but cadence isn’t something I think about when pushing the pace.... I think your cadence should be noted at race pace not a shake out run or long run. Just my .02

Personally cadence was something that I worked to change as I was consistently getting injured. I'm pretty sure that this was because I was overstriding with only a cadence of 160 odd. I'm going to disagree with the poster above who said that lower cadence is fine for slower runs, I think that with a cadence much lower than 180 there is a high likelihood of overstriding and excessive heel striking regardless of going easy or hard. Now I'm not in the least bit concerned whether my cadence is 175 or 195, but I do always aim for it to be up somewhere around 180. My issues with injuries have pretty much stopped entirely since reducing my stride length at a given speed (what I actually think is important)

If you want to improve your running, just run more and your body will adapt as needed (running, unlike swimming or cycling, is an activity we humans were designed for). Just look at Lionel, Frodo, Alistair, and TO; very different running styles but all are world class.

My cadence hovers in the mid-150s (unless I'm running under 6min/mile, where it goes up slightly). That's just where I'm most efficient (got me through a middling Div.1 career back in the day). In some of the interviews with the top Kenyans they mentioned that their form/cadence was just something that developed as they trained, not anything they specifically worked on (apologies, I can't find a link to the piece).

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
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https://www.outsideonline.com/...unning-cadence#close

This article by Alex Hutchinson should help reinforce what I am saying. For those who are reading this and haven't heard of Alex Hutchinson he is fairly knowledgeable of the science behind endurance sports (his book 'endure' is really good and I would recommend to anyone here). Some key points from the article include the effect of height on cadence, that elite runners have significantly slower cadence on easier runs than they do in the Olympic 5k, and that cadence can be useful to track in order to see what kind of paces you are running at different cadences during a training cycle to compare to previous training cycles as a measure of the kind of fitness you are at.

The final point of does the 180 cadence be something to think about that Alex makes is that it often can be good to try and increase cadence because many runners are overstriding but its not necessary going to be in one's best interest to increase cadence if overstriding is not a problem and shouldn't be a blanket statement made that all runners should aim for 180 strides per minute as it is a very individualized part of running

Edit: Adding another article by Steve Magnes on his Science of running blog.

https://www.scienceofrunning.com/....html?v=47e5dceea252

Steve is also a pretty big name in the science behind running and coaching and his other posts and book are pretty good reads if this kind of stuff interests you. Same basic idea. Stride rate is variable person by person and at different speeds.

So if anyone wants to learn more about stride rate and all that then give these articles a read

Based on that I agree with you. It’s not about the cadence, it’s about over striding. One usually leads to the other, but not always.

After reading “Natural Running” by Danny Abshire back in 2012, he discussed the “ideal” cadence. I was just starting out with endurance sports after having no athletic background. Along with the drills he suggests, cadence was something for me to focus on. Fast forward to 2015 and I finally hired a coach. I kept focusing on the 180 cadence no matter what, lower leg injuries were re-occurring but I also wasn’t training smartly back then either so take all that with a grain of salt. Finally I dropped the cadence focus and just let my body do what it wants to do on a given day. Find your form and focus on that. Your body has a natural cadence, just let your body do that. Kind of a hippy response but that’s my 2 cents to the conversation.

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Brett Z

“Livin’ in a van down by the river”

Exercise physiologists & sports scientists have been saying this since oh idk, 1920 maybe earlier. Crazy that people still struggle to grasp that most people will self select the optimal stride rate & length for themselves and the velocity they are running. sigh....people....and their silver bullets.

Good links!

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Why do y'all measure cycling cadence one way and running another way?

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http://www.fitspeek.com the Fraser Valley's fitness, wellness, and endurance sports podcast

I'm weird apparently... running cadence around 192 most of the time (190-195 for any given mile). I'm not sure if it is because I am short-ish (5'8"), midfoot strike with minimalist shoes, or come from a high cadence cycling background (~100 cycling cadence) from years spent riding fixed gears. Two things I'm not are fast (7min/mile) or high mileage (~15mpw, most runs 3-5 miles... I've run a 10k less than 5 times in my life). I've occasionally tried to overstride and slow my cadence, but it feels uncomfortable, exhausting, and I end up running slower.

In cycling you're in a fixed position. Your legs either go around faster or slower, you're not altering distance between 3 and 6 o' clock on the cranks.

In running as you increase/ decrease velocities your stride length and rate change. Go faster and both tend to increase with length increasing faster than rate most typically. Go slower and everything shortens up and stride rate slows.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I saw this post a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about it since that time. The other feedback provides some good points, however, I strongly believe that 80-90% of beginner to intermediate triathletes can improve their run performance by increasing their cadence. I am a case in point. In my early triathlon years, my Zone 2 endurance cadence was around 164-166. When I focus on improving my Zone 2 cadence to the 175-176 range during the early season, I have better run results in my races. The natural adaptation view is fine in theory, but when we are only running 25-40 miles a week, muscle memory and habit seem to be stronger forces than natural adaptation. I do agree that the mythical 180 cadence should not be a target.

If you want to attempt to increase your cadence, the following approach has worked for me:
1. During some Zone 1 easy runs, include some 60 second intervals where you try to increase your cadence while maintaining something close to the same pace. These will be tiring at first, but soon your body will adapt.
2. Still during the Zone 1 easy runs, increase the duration of the cadence pick up intervals to 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Eventually, try increasing your cadence for a mile or two during your Zone 2 endurance runs. You might try 2 miles at an increased cadence, 1 mile at your natural cadence, 2 miles at an increased cadence, etc. Again, the goal is to increase the cadence with only a small impact on pace. If you pace is getting 20 seconds per mile faster with the increased cadence, you are just doing a Zone 2/Zone 3 workout.
4. Finally, include some cadence endurance runs where you try to maintain the increased cadence at a Zone 2 pace for the entire workout. These efforts will help to lock in the higher cadence. The goal is to get your muscles to adapt to the increased cadence.

I am glad that I saw your post. I had failed to focus on my cadence during the pre-season this year and had been wondering why my run efforts were weaker than last year. (My 30 minutes test effort last month was 16 seconds a mile slower than last year). I have started to focus on my cadence again and I have seen some noticeable improvement already.

I just set the metronome on my watch to whatever my desired cadence to be.

If I go too fast I shorten my step.