Stride rate: Does anyone take note of... - Fun Beyond 10K & ...

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Stride rate

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon
15 Replies

Does anyone take note of their stride rate? I have a stride rate of about 165 steps per minute this goes up or down buy a few if i speed up or slow down.

according to this article a good rate would be around the 200 mark which seems pretty big to me and that stays the same if going fast or slow its the stride length that determines speed rather then stride rate.

running.competitor.com/2014...

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benwill profile image
benwill
Marathon
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15 Replies
AnnieW55 profile image
AnnieW55

I record mine every now and again. Over the last couple of months, depending on the run, my averages go from 160 to 178 with most in the mid 170s. I do have fairly short legs being 1.61m tall so my stride length, I think, is fairly short at less than 80cms.

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon in reply toAnnieW55

oh so maybe i should cut my legs in half! my stride length is alot larger at about 100cm

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Half Marathon

I don't have a cadence thingy on my watch, so I only know from music I know the beat of if you know what I mean. My natural cadence is about 150, I've found I go quicker if I increase the cadence and shorten my stride. Makes no sense at all really, except I read Born to Run where they say modern shoes cause us to over stride, and too much of the stride is in front of us when it should be behind us...the shorter stride seems easier on my Achilles too.

Once I went out with a metronome and did one KM at each of 185, 175 and 165. 185 was by far the fastest but I felt like my heart would burst...

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon in reply toCurlygurly2

Born to run is one of those books i always meant to read but never seem to have the time to do it, one day!

do you now try and keep that high 185 cadence practice makes perfect? or do you not care?

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Half Marathon in reply tobenwill

Gawd, I can't keep to anything close to 180! I wish I could! For a longer run I just do what feels comfortable, I guess that's around 150 or so, also I still use the plus podcasts Speed and Stamina, they go up to 165, and I find that quite comfortable. I will be back in lovely flat cool Cambridge in a few weeks, I shall play around a bit with cadence then.

roseabi profile image
roseabiUltramarathon

When I was coming to the end of C25K I worked out my cadence from my favourite running song, 'Is That Love' by Squeeze :). It was 170 spm. So I got a metronome app and set it to 180, and this got me doing a sub-30 minute 5k, in time for my graduation.

Now Is That Cheating? :)

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon in reply toroseabi

Now i wont comment on your musical taste's! but i dont think setting a high metronome is cheating, doing it on roller skates would be cheating.

maybe its because i dont listen to music its quite low. Do you keep to that high cadence?

roseabi profile image
roseabiUltramarathon in reply tobenwill

Hmm, I must get some roller skates... I do keep it high, but I also keep away from music and metronomes these days, I like peace, quiet, and being able to hear what's going on around me :)

C3PO profile image
C3POMarathon

I've never figured out how to count my strides, but I understand that higher numbers are better. I suspect my stride rate is low.

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon in reply toC3PO

the best way to do it, is count ether your left leg or right leg how many times it hits the ground in 30 seconds then x 4 this will give you steps per minute or you get a watch that calculates it for you!

marco83 profile image
marco83Marathon

I have no idea and cannot keep track of it. I believe that 3 per second is already a very good pace (indeed I think elite run with that strike rate...). 180 seems feasible. 200 looks a bit high speed to me. But as I said I have no capacity to count it (haven't attempted it yet).

Maybe I'll give it a go in the next few days and let you know ;)

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon in reply tomarco83

give it a go! and see what it is. I might make an effort to try and see if i can up my rate.

dagshar profile image
dagsharHalf Marathon

I don't think it is particularly important and there is no hard and fast rule what is best either. I think I had a look a few days ago and on slow runs it averages around 142-145, on faster ones it's closer to 160. Max cadence on various runs can hit 180. It all depends on age, ability and general fitness and speed.

benwill profile image
benwillMarathon in reply todagshar

Of course we are all far from Pro! but it maybe a way of improving people's running.

My natural cadence seems to have crept up recently to about 163. That's a steady, comfortable pace. If I am pushing myself I can get to about 175bpm for short periods... and only if I am hurtling downhill can I get to 180bpm. 200bpm seems very unrealistic to me!

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