I’m 6’4" tall. I read articles about shooting for a running cadence of 80-90. As I start running, I can run in the 80’s, but as I start to tire, such as during a mere 6 mile run my cadence slips down to about 75 or so. I do what I can to try to keep it up, but it seems like more work. I run on a treadmill, set at about 7 mph, so my speed isn’t changing.
What is your comment:
screw this cadence b.s. and run whatever cadence my body naturally wants to run.
or
I should continue to try to get my cadence up with the expectation that I will run more efficiently.
My comment…Your cadence is slowing because you are getting tired
I understand this, but if I gravitate towards a slower cadence when I’m getting tired, then how can a higher cadence be more efficient? I would expect the body to gravitate towards efficiency when it gets tired. Am I wrong here?
My comment…Your cadence is slowing because you are getting tired
I understand this, but if I gravitate towards a slower cadence when I’m getting tired, then how can a higher cadence be more efficient? I would expect the body to gravitate towards efficiency when it gets tired. Am I wrong here?
Yes and no.
When you get tired, your body’s goal is to obtain a form that minimizes the effects of fatigue. In the extreme case, this means that your body is trying to emphasize muscles that traditionally serve a supporting role. Long striding is one way in which your body shifts the fatigue. It’s clear that your fitness does not match the speed that you’re trying to maintain, so the best solution would be to slow down and match good form with a sustainable speed. There is much less harm in slowing down than there is in running poorly.
My comment…Your cadence is slowing because you are getting tired
I understand this, but if I gravitate towards a slower cadence when I’m getting tired, then how can a higher cadence be more efficient? I would expect the body to gravitate towards efficiency when it gets tired. Am I wrong here?
If the high cadence is where you feel most natural, stick with it, but if the lower cadence is efficient for you and not slogging with your foot landing ahead of your body, then keep with it.
I’m 6’4" 190 lbs, and while that may help in the comparison, I think it is really universal.
The second half of last year I was putting in more mileage than by body could handle. Unfortunately, I was not made aware of this until I came down with a nasty case of heel tendonosis which left me with dagger pains in my left heel. Working with a sports doc and running specific PT, we figured out that my stride had changed from a mid-foot to heel-strike, with a lower cadence than I regularly run with.
While I’m not saying that you will end up in the same boat, I will stress that when you break form while running, it opens the door for injuries where you wouldn’t think they would pop up.
My comment…Your cadence is slowing because you are getting tired
I understand this, but if I gravitate towards a slower cadence when I’m getting tired, then how can a higher cadence be more efficient? I would expect the body to gravitate towards efficiency when it gets tired. Am I wrong here?
Mmm…no, you aren’t going to gravitate towards efficiency when you get tired. Watch any endurance race from the 800m on up. You can almost immediately tell when someone is tired/in trouble, they start losing their form. Efficient form helps in the earlier parts of the race by conserving energy.
One question though, how are you maintaining a consistent speed if your cadence is dropping?
My comment…Your cadence is slowing because you are getting tired
I understand this, but if I gravitate towards a slower cadence when I’m getting tired, then how can a higher cadence be more efficient? I would expect the body to gravitate towards efficiency when it gets tired. Am I wrong here?
Mmm…no, you aren’t going to gravitate towards efficiency when you get tired. Watch any endurance race from the 800m on up. You can almost immediately tell when someone is tired/in trouble, they start losing their form. Efficient form helps in the earlier parts of the race by conserving energy.
One question though, how are you maintaining a consistent speed if your cadence is dropping?
That analogly is flat out wrong. What youre suggesting is that those runners would continue to maintain their speed if they only kept their cadence up. Cadence is related to running to running economy. Taking more or less steps than your optimal stride rate(most often self selected cadence) reduces your running economy via decrease in mechanical efficiency and/or decrease in optimal leg stiffness.
N=1 and all that, but for me, cadence slows because my muscles are getting tired from the longer stride length. To maintain a higher cadence, I shorten my stride. A shorter stride length makes your heart rate go up, but its easier on the muscles.
You’re pretty tall, so you may never feel comfortable at 90 (180).
When you get tired,your body mostly just wants to make the pain go away. The way to do this is – obviously – to slow down so ***that’s ***what your body most wants to do. If it “gravitates” towards anything, it’s that.
We’re all more efficient at “easy” speeds than at race speeds so I guess you could say that getting tired makes you gravitate towards better efficiency. But that’s certainly not what I want in a race. If we have time/place goals we try to fight this and not slow down. Fighting the fatigue causes most people to do all sort of bad things to form.