Hi, this is Debbie Boyle, coach at Mojo for Running. And this is podcast number 28. 28 is a follow-up to 27, which was about cadence. And just as a review, cadence is about leg turnover. It's also referred to as stride rate. It's simply how many steps you take in a given time or how quickly your legs turn over. It could be referred to as RPMs, revolutions per minute. And really, that's the way you should think of it. Your legs should be revolving in a spinning pattern when you run just like on a bike.

If you can get your running to where your legs are moving in what would be more of a

circular pattern, then you're going to be improving your form and getting lighter on your

feet, which is the goal.

So let's talk about that.

Last week we talked about cadence in general, and I gave you a homework assignment,

and the homework assignment was to time yourself when you're warming up for one minute

and during that time to count how many steps you took. Or you could say,

refer to it as how many foot strikes. How many times did your feet strike the ground within one

minute? And then I ask you to do the same thing when you were going at a conversational easy pace.

And also for a minute. And then the third part was to do the same thing, but at 5K pace.

And I'm going to bet that you had slower, fewer steps per minute when you were warming up, more steps per minute when you were running

at a conversational pace, and more steps per minute when you were running at a 5K pace.

And I would be willing to bet that you thought that was exactly the way it should turn out.

The fact is, and this will surprise most people, your stride rate should be about the same no matter what speed you're going. And I know

most of you are thinking, what? That's right. Because here's the thing. The way you change your speed is not by speeding up your steps. It's by making your steps larger. So when you're warming up, it should look almost like you're shuffling along.

Very tiny steps.

And you'll find that you can take a lot of short steps very easily.

And then when you are finished warming up and you're ready to pick it up

and just go at a nice conversational pace for an easy run,

then it should still be at about 180 foot strikes per minute, but your steps are a little bit longer.

And then if you're running a 5K, your steps should be 180 or faster.

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