High cadence?

Nerobot

Barefooters
Jun 8, 2014
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Hi All,

Yesterday I did a short slow run using my cadence sensor and noticed after that my cadence was around 105 on average (so about 210 steps per minute). It was dark and I was using my Xero Connect sandals.

Anyone else found their natural cadence to be "high" like this?

When I first used the sensor about a year ago, I was wearing shoes and my cadence was already about 90, so going minimal seems to have increased it further.

Steven
 
my "sensor" is merely counting left feet while watching a minute go by. my cadence seems to be pretty high like that, too. that is, for me slow is about 95, normal is about 100 up to 105, and if i am really trying to go super fast, it can get up to 108 or 110 or something. and this is all skin-to-sidewalk.
 
I struggle to maintain faster than 80 to 85. I do keep trying 90 but feel much more relaxed at a little slower
 
One of my big problems when I was shod was really low cadence combined with heel striking. Barefoot running I've learned to take shorter faster steps, but my stride has a natural tendency to be lazy and drift back to slow cadence. Which is fine when I'm doing a >10min/mi warmup or cooldown but I think the lower cadence on my long runs is one thing that cause me some leg issues throughout the first half of this year. When I started really kicking it in gear for marathon training towards the end of summer I decided to try a metronome app on my phone and realized my cadence had drifted since I stopped using it the previous year. I thought I was instinctively hitting about 180 steps per minute but in actuality it was much less, especially as I tire on a long run. As much as our form should be 'natural' it isn't always the case for some of us, overridden by decades of running with shoes and developing bad habits and such a long the way. I don't think hitting a certain target like 180 is the end all, whats more important is stride length, which should make the cadence vary with speed I think. All I know is my form tends to get lazy and sloppy unless I consciously try to keep it right. The more you run barefoot this should become more instinctive but even after 3 years I still struggle with some things.
 
I learned early on in barefooting that a cadence above 180 was good for me...i only check my cadence once a year or two...it has stayed around 185. For new runners its worth checking...there is no advantage in a low cadence for new barefooters. I don't think a cadence above 190 would be very comfortable to me unless I was trying to finish a race at high speed though.
 
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My cadence today at 7ish minute pace was around 200 (for the whole minute I counted it) last week, at 9 minute pace, it was around 190. That seems to be fairly consistent for most of my running. I seem to run at 180 at about 11 minute pace.