I know there are some coaches on here so I thought I would ask here in case future members do a search and can find the answer; instead of going to google for bad advice first.
I was wondering what a good way to improve running cadence would be? When I am running at a pace I can sustain for my entire workout my cadence is around 155. If I flat out sprint my cadence tops out at around 210. When I try to run with a metronome set at 170bpm I get around 160.
So I am just wondering if anybody here Coach or otherwise could recommend a stand alone exercise or exercises to improve running cadence? as my feet hurt less at the higher cadence.
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Not a coach, but I had a low cadence and succeeded in upping it. What worked best was once a week doing intervals of 5x1 minute at the highest cadence you can manage (not neccessarily as fast as you can go), with a minute easy jogging in between. Works best with a 10 minute warm up jog first, then some strides, high knees and warm up exercises to increase you range of motion. They’re quite horrible intervals at first, but if you keep it up the cadence of each interval gets much higher over time, and it is a lot easier to maintain a high cadence in the rest of your running, which I found much less fatiguing.
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For me cadence change came about by thinking of “short, springy steps”. So instead of trying to move the legs faster or harder, think of short, quick steps. Think of being light on your feet.
Also the more minimal footwear you can run in the faster your cadence tends to be. If you run in shoes with lots of heel padding your foot strike will tend to be heavier and your cadence will tend to be lower.
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What is running cadence in a 3 or 5K race?
I have not ran one in the past. I am currently trying to train for one in 14 weeks. So far i’m not sure its going very well.