For me, the big takeaway from the New Balance running form clinic I attended earlier this week was that my cadence needed to be increased. Nothing else was too bad…slight heel strike on the right foot, but the instructor said an increased cadence would probably take care of that.
So yesterday I set out for an interval workout with a metronome beeping at 180 bpm. My pace was definitely faster for that course than what I usually put out there, even with walk breaks, but my heart rate was a lot higher too. And I felt like I was having a really hard time keeping up that cadence unless I was in the middle of an interval.
During my 1.5 mile cooldown I lowered the metronome to 170 bpm, and that was pretty comfortable to maintain. Also, my heart rate stayed in the low 140s. I need to gather more data, but I’m thinking 170 may be right for me. I was running at about 150 before, so 170 is definitely an improvement. What I’m looking for is the cadence that lets me stay in zone 2 and still get a good clip in.
I’m wondering if the 180 recommendation is just the one-size-fits-all starting point. Does weight and power output have any effect on this? I’ve noticed on the bike that 80-85 rpm in a higher gear means lower HR and higher velocity for me than 90 rpm in a lower gear.