Runner's World Your Best Stride by Jonathan Beverly

Author:Jonathan Beverly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rodale
Published: 2017-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

8

GOT RHYTHM?

THE BENEFITS—AND LIMITS—OF A FASTER ROLLING STRIDE

A fast cadence has been one of the most universally accepted and preached elements of running well. Just about every runner has been told that she turns over too slowly and should increase her cadence to be more efficient and reduce injury—and/or to be able to run in less supportive shoes. But, like foot strike, research and experts increasingly say that cadence is more personal and variable than we’ve been led to believe and that trying to match a prescribed rate—particularly without addressing other elements of form—can be counterproductive and even harmful.

Before we get into the excesses of high-cadence advice, let’s look at why cadence is important and why it has received so much attention. Cadence, or turnover, is simply how many steps you take per minute. In general, faster runners turn over more quickly than slower runners do. That’s not surprising: Speed in running is a function of stride rate and stride length. To run faster, one or the other, or both, must increase.

If, however, you maintain the same speed and change one variable, you must also vary the other—as your stride rate goes up, your stride length comes down. And playing with that ratio has been at the center of the focus on cadence, as the most common inefficiency in form is to overstride—reaching in front of the body with an exaggerated, long stride.

“Overstriding is widely accepted as poor form,” says Bryan Heiderscheit, PhD, director of the Runner’s Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Sports Medicine Center and a leading researcher on cadence. “But it’s far easier to coach on cadence than it is to tell a runner to decrease their stride length by x centimeters.”

Grant Robison, Olympian and cofounder of Good Form Running, says cadence is often the easiest element to think about because it doesn’t require a lot of body awareness, thus making it a great place to start. “If you can find a way to improve your cadence,” Robison says, “your foot strike and a lot of the efficiency stuff will come along on its own.”

Besides the pragmatic aspect of cadence being an easy variable to play with, people have focused on it because changing it often works: Research shows that when runners increase their turnover, they reduce impact on their knees and hips and often improve their stride mechanics. Studies, such as 2011 research by Heiderscheit, have shown that runners with a lower cadence have a higher risk of developing injuries such as shin splints. Another study, conducted in 2015 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that after increasing stride rate, runners had a less pronounced heel strike and reduced inward turning of the thigh, which is tied to injuries like iliotibial band (ITB) syndrome and knee pain.

Those who turn over faster spend less time in the air, thus tending to bounce less, and they take shorter strides, which tends to reduce the braking that occurs when you land with your foot far in front of your body.

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