Bit more on cadence and reduced knee pain...

[andrewhagger]

Following on from the excellent turbotortoise post on cadence, I chipped in with my opinion that if you are naturally quite a low steps per minute runner, that upping the cadence and taking smaller steps has a significant impact/improvement on times.

I'm not a super-runner - I am 42, about 15 stone, and my best time before I started looking into this more was 33 minutes and 5 seconds for the 5k.

In the last couple of weeks, when I've switched to a very conscious attempt to increase the cadence, I've found an improvement to 31:35.

What I also found was that (1) it changed my breathing pattern quite a bit - from every 3 steps to every 2 steps; and (2) that it has been much kinder to my knees. I don't have a medical problem with them, but pounding on them before did bring about some pain in the post-run glow (and through the evening).

Today, even though I went 10k last night (where using a faster cadence and smaller step also improved my time by 5 minutes to 1 hour and 7 minutes, with a negative split of 34 minutes to 33 minutes), again no pain at all from mr and mrs knee.

Thought those of you with troublesome knees may find this interesting

[Kurama Graduate]

I may have a play with this in the next few runs. I am also carrying a little extra poundage at the moment and i have noticed a minor niggle with my right knee mostly post run. I think i am gonna have to head out with one of my running friends and get a little schooling. I've done ok so far but i would like to sharpen up me technique a little if it will improve knees and running times.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

That is impressive Andrew. I am going to have to give it a go.