My experiences with stride rate (running cadence)

I've just started trying to get cycle and running cadence up. Both were very low before. In a long hard ride my quads would start to cramp when I stood up to push it on the hills, and a few times I've had bad cramp on runs too.

I got a MP3 of 90 beats per minute on the ipod and have been running and riding to it. Very strange to start with (I can't even tap my foot to a beat let alone move both feet round and round) but after a week it's starting to feel better.

I have been quite slow when riding (feel like not putting so much power into it as am just keeping up with the legs going round) but I'm running faster (even with very short strides).  

When I tire or try to slow the running down and end go back to my old style I'm really aware of how much heel striking I'm doing and how my body is bouncing up and down so much more. It feels much harder on the knees.

I'm going to keep working on the 180 for a while to see if it does improve my technique / spped  /efficiency over time.

Gerrard 

I worked on both my run and bike cadence in 2005 quite a bit and haven't really addressed either lately. I train/race with power meter so I always know my bike cadence and it has settled in at 97-98 on most of my rides and up to 101 on races up to 45'.

Just for kicks I counted my run cadence a couple of times recently and it was 96 each time. Interesting that both settled in to virtually the same number. 

Both when I started were much lower..bike in the 70's and run in the 80's. My coach believes most folks find the sweet spot for them in working on it with different drills over time. 

Modified that a little bit.

Stride rate is just like what part of the foot you land on.  There is NO reason to subscribe to someone else's "rules" about what you should be doing.

There is no magic running cadence, there is no reason to increase/decrease it unless you are having injury issues and the "cadence to match your cycling for cadence" ideal is a bogus myth.

You are not going to run well off the bike if you do not pace the bike well and stay within yourself, plain and simple.  I don't care what cadence you ride or run, if you pushed the bike right then you will still have jelly legs at the beginning of the run regardless.  Has nothing to do with leg turnover.

Just sayin' ..........

I use an MP3 file from the original article that I posted.  I have it set to 180 BPM. 

An update:

I started cadence training on 4/24.  Since then I've done a 1.5 mile T-run, a 6 miler, a 2 mile t-run, a 6 miler, a 5.5 miler, a 3 mile T-run, a 5.4 miler, a 1.5 mile T-run.  Last night I did a zone 2 3 miler without the MP3 at a 8:20 pace (which is fast than what I would normally do that run at). 

Pace has definitly improved.  Higher cadence running feels more normal and slower cadence is starting to feel abnormal. 

It could be because you're running consistently and frequently.

I found 180 just too fast and I couldn't keep in time. 90 is easier for me, but I do sometime feel like I'm favouring the side that is striking in time with the beat. Maybe I'll be really good at running in circles in a few weeks  

Or it could be becuase my stride rate was too low to begin with.

End of last year and beginning of this year I trained for 2 marathons.  Yet, dispite running less miles now than I did over the fall/winter, I am getting faster. 

Hate on stride rate training all you want but it is working for me.

It's not hating on anything.

It's merely pointing out the fact that the correlation you've drawn may not be the correct one.  The body is a complex system, and to used reductionist ideas to show that A causes B is seldom the reality of the situation.  You cannot say if it's the cadence, or fitness gains, or better experience.

And for what it's worth, cadence will naturally change as a person runs more.  It will also vary to some extent based on speed. 

It's not hating at all, as Scout said there is just absolutely no objective proof that it is the reason you are faster.

It is awesome that you have seen improvement over the last year!  Congrats on that.  But to correlate that  A = B is just not accurate.

The reason professional runners have a naturally high cadence is that over the tens of thousands of miles that they have run they have developed a natural efficiency and economy of motion.  You cannot "force" that by changing your turnover, it can only come with time.  And they do not force their turnover, it is what they have evolved into.  Some will be in the 150 range, some in the 200 range.  But to try to adapt to what works for someone else is just short changing yourself and not allowing your natural gait and such to develop.

An example from the cycling world ...... not everyone can ride as low as Bjorn A., but there are others who can ride just as fast as him without going as low and as aggressive as him in their position.

tbell,

That is one of my all time fav youtube videos. 

"3 meters of snow.  There is no way you can ride."  "Who says that?"

Damn right.

Feel free to believe whatever you guys want.  As long as you continue to get out there and work you will see improvement and that is the key.

If you think that faster turnover and (cough cough giggle) mid foot striking is the key to injury free running and speed, have at it!  But just do yourself a favor.  Read up on it more, take everything you read with an objective grain of salt until you have enough data to make a fully educated assumption and continue to train consistently.  And most importantly, being totally serious ..... NEVER try to alter your mechanics and technique fast, if you insist on making changes because you think it will help you, do it gradually.  I can guarantee THAT will lead right to an injury if you don't.