Running Question

John Schneider

Running Question for the experts.

I did my V02 workout yesterday.  When I run at Z1, cadence at 88-89, When I was running at Z5 cadence at 94-95.  Is this normal/to be expected?  Should my cadence be lower 90's?  If so what do I do to keep my cadence lower but still stay at the same pace?  Just trying to think when I get faster z5 will I be running at cadence 100?

All answers mucho appreciated!

Coach Rich

I think you're good, no changes required. Generally ~88-93+ is good, as it's usually not accompanied by excessive heal striking. 

Al Truscott

This is a normal progression, and probably just the right cadence. Wm Jenks last year plotted all his runs from his GPS device with a footpod cadence sensor, and found a pretty linear curve from LRP (Z1) thru IP (Z5). I find the same thing on a regular basis. JRA (just running along), I'm @ 88-89; when I push my hardest on strides, I get up to 99. I find myself @ 95-6 when I'm doing Z4 intervals.

What's happening, of course, is that you are using cadence as well as increasing stride length to increase your speed. The fact that you are @ 88-90 when running slowly is a good thing, as it is easier to do short quick hops (steps) than fewer, longer ones. This becomes especially important during longer (HIM and IM) races, when tired legs are tempted to JPA (just plod along). Learning how to get into a cadence of 88-89 after biking 112 miles and running at SLOWER than LRP is critical to saving energy for the whole 26 miles. Personally, I pay most attention to my cadence in training in the first mile or two of a brick, when it is most tempting to move slower. I try to keep myself turning over @ 88-90 right out of the chute, while also going at a LRP or a bit slower.

jsumara

Glad you posted this cadence question as I was wondering the same thing. My cadence is about the same as what you posted and Al notes. I average a cadence of around 90 at the slower paces but can go up to over 100 at fast interval pace. I usually run in the high 90's for 5K races. Good to know this is normal.

William Jenks

I had read and done a qualitative watch on cadence vs. speed. It's a fact that your speed is nothing but cadence x stride length. Can't be anything else. :-)

Anyway, a lot of people think either one is constant when you go faster and will argue up a storm. You may find someone out there for whom that is true, but it is a much more general result that both stride length and cadence go up as you run faster. For most people, stride length makes up more of the increase, but both go up. If you are curious about this, you can do a qualitative plot by running as naturally as possible on a treadmill and plot velocity vs. cadence.

Last winter I made a plot that had every step I had taken for about 2 months of running. Lots of geeky data, but just me. :-)

My observation found a strong linear correlation from the fastest paces I ran down to well into the ironman regime...but not too much further below that, the cadence started to fall of a lot faster (as you get near walking).

I'm not sure there is any great lesson here, other than that you are normal, and that trying to keep cadence up when you are doing an IM run is a good thing. :-)