The two focuses of my running for now are increased frequency, and getting my cadance up to 90. I’ve heard “getting lighter on your feet” mentioned a number of times as an aid to getting the cadance up. I’d like your best tips on accomplishing this.
Lose weight?
I’ve always read that shortening your stride is the quickest way to higher cadence. Interestingly, I walked out my door one day to buy a cheap metronome, and then realized that I hadn’t bothered to actually count my cadence before spending the money. Counted it a few times since and I’m almost dead on a 90 every time. I have a pretty darn short stride.
Of course, my smart-assed answer would have been “switch teams”.
Strides during most runs will help as well. Run with a very hight turnover, say 110, forefoot only, quick steps, but only for a short time as the HR will skyrocket. You can repeat this often as you recover (wear a HR monitor)?
The two focuses of my running for now are increased frequency, and getting my cadance up to 90. I’ve heard “getting lighter on your feet” mentioned a number of times as an aid to getting the cadance up. I’d like your best tips on accomplishing this.
I think this works the other way around: shorten your stride, increase your turnover, and you get lighter on your feet.
Victor
Thanks, yes I wear a hrm, and noticed this morning that as my cadance gets over 90 my hr starts to spike.
Dev Paul had a suggestion in a thread a few weeks ago that helped me, which was to run as if you are trying to step on your own feet. It forces you to shorten your stride and increase your turnover.
try to be more self-conscious of your posture throughout the day. meaning, don’t just be lighter on your feet when you run, be lighter on your feet all day.
Strides for sure, also running drills such as high knees, butt kicks, skipping (“A’s” and “B’s” and bounding), shuffle and twisting (grapevine) drills, plyometric hops (single leg or both, on the ground or using a box) can all help a lot, but you need to do them right - hard to describe in text, so if you don’t know already how to do them properly, ask someone who knows to show you, or google, there are even some CTS videos out there of some of the drills). When running and thinking about cadence and being light on your feet, concentrate on getting the already placed foot UP quickly rather than trying to put your feet down quickly. The new foot will get down fast enough on its own if you get the old foot out of the way - your hindbrain will respect gravity and try to keep you from hitting the deck. Run like you are on a hot griddle in bare feet (but don’t spaz out). Don’t overstride - keep your feet under you. Running on the balls of the feet is hard to do for significant distances especially if you’re a lifelong heel striker, don’t wreck your calves and achilles trying to overdo it - think more about a midfoot strike and just spending less time on the ground. Probably most important is to be a little patient, don’t force it - do this stuff when you are fairly fresh, after an easy run, rather than when you are wiped out and liable to have deteriorated form already, and don’t try to run fast right away.