When I approach my training runs, I usually simply follow some friend’s plan for the day, not think too much about it, give myself a pat when I finish the run for the day, then move on.
I know the meaning and what I should do for different types of training – tempo, LSD, intervals, etc. and got away with just that most of my years running.
But recently, I realized I wasn’t sure what these training’s concrete purpose was. I wasn’t satisfied with something as vague as “I’ll run faster” or “My body can better adapt to hard work”. I needed something more concrete, something that directly relates to the mechanics of running.
Say you are running a business for profit, business advisers would give suggestions such as “streamline your production line”, “set up social media”, “create seasonal promotions”. These serve a vague purpose of “improving your business”, but there are more concrete purposes.
The simple measurable mechanics for profit is Income minus Expenses. Every action you take for the vague purpose of “improving your business” is actually directly related to the concreate purposes of “Increasing Income” or “Reducing Expenses”.
By “streamlining your production line”, your concrete purpose is to “Reduce your Expenses” to improve your business. By “creating seasonal promotions”, your concrete purpose is to “Increase your Income” to improve your business.
If you don’t know the concrete purpose, you might be “streamlining your production line” but increasing your Expenses (i.e. combining some low cost production steps with the purchase of one high-end super expensive machine), which defeats the concrete purpose of “Reducing your Expenses”.
In terms of running, without knowing the concrete purpose of a Long Slow Distance run, I might end up running too fast or too short. Then, I will not achieve the results designed by the training session. I tried to look for something logical but there are so many different goals for different trainings that it got too complicated to formulate in a big picture.
Until one day, it clicked. I found the simple measurable mechanics for running:
Running Performance = (Cadence X Stride Length) limited by Cardiorespiratory Fitness
The 3 Components to Efficient Running
Whether you are a first-time runner or Eliud Kipchoge, training for a 100m sprint or an ultramarathon, your run boils down to training for these 3 measurable components of running – Cadence, Stride Length, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness.
Imagine your body as a car. Your car, just like you, converts chemical energy to kinetic energy.
The amount and quality of fuel is the input that determines how far and fast your car can go.
The engine determines the performance limitations of your car.
The axle rotation frequency and the size of the wheel combine to determine the speed of your car.
Your diet is your body’s input that determines how far and how fast you can run. Read “Nutrient for Runners” for more details.
Your Cardiorespiratory Fitness determines your running performance limits.
Your Cadence (Steps per Minute) and your Stride Length combine to determine your running speed.
Today, if my Cardiorespiratory Fitness can support my run at a Cadence of 160 and Stride Length of 1.2m for 30 minutes, I can cover 5760m at a speed of 11.5km/h.
If I want to improve so I can run 6000m at a speed of 12.0km/h, I could achieve this by increasing my Stride Length to 1.25m. To do this, I know I should improve my Stride Length, so I work on related training or even stop wearing the baggy clothes that shorten my Stride Length.
Alternatively, I can improve my Cadence to 167 while maintaining my 1.2m Stride Length. I know I should improve how fast my feet move, so I work on related training or switch to lighter shoes.
These improvements either require improvements in my running form, or if I have perfected my running form, I’ll have to improve my Cardiorespiratory Fitness to support the increased demand of higher Cadence and Stride Length. Knowing this, I’ll need to improve my Cardiorespiratory Fitness by related training or rely on a caffeine boost that increases my blood sugar.
I find this more solid and quantifiable than a running coach telling me to perform some training and just say “Run Faster”.
Whenever you run, you are working on improving one or all these 3 components, which directly translates to how well you run. Look at your training runs todays and see if they support at least one of these 3 components. This will give concrete purpose(s) to why you are running them.
I’ll discuss each component in more detail below, and afterwards, you will have solid quantifiable knowledge on how to improve your running performance.
Cadence
Cadence (or Steps per Minute) is the number of times your feet contact the ground in one minute of running. This is the simplest component to measure and use.
Go out for a leisure walk, time one minute on your watch, count the number of times your left or right foot (pick one) touches the ground, then multiply by two. You might get a number around 100. That’s your leisure walking cadence.
If you go for the same walk again, but try to move your legs faster, you might get a number around 120, and feel a lot faster as well. This is the basics of how cadence affects your running performance.
In a simplistic sense, the higher your cadence, the faster you become. However, every time you increase your cadence, your stride length naturally decreases. To maintain the stride length with a higher cadence, you will have to work your body harder, especially your hip muscles.
Understandably, there is a limit to your cadence due to physiological limitations to your nerves and muscles, and your cardiorespiratory fitness. Past your ideal cadence, it is not worth it to take the extra effort for any increase in cadence.
Like a spring, your muscles and tendons have a reflex when compressed. When they are compressed, they automatically spring back. Every foot contact with the ground activates the spring.
You will spring back the most energy with a quick contact. You will lose most of that energy with slow contact as your tendons now acts as a cushion to stabilize your landing.
A higher cadence promotes a quicker contact for less impact (lower injury risk) and better conservation of running energy. More details can be found in this article.
At an ideal cadence, your body is most energy efficient at each step. When you reach your ideal cadence, you can then work on your stride length and cardiorespiratory fitness for further improvements in your running performance.
Cadence Goal: 180 to start with
Since running coach Jack Daniels made an observation at the 1984 Olympics, a cadence of 180 has been the ideal number for runners at any speed running over 5K. Recently, the running community has been debating the validity of this number but a consensus has yet to been made.
If you have run for many years, you might have found your ideal cadence (which could be 160 or 190). However, if you are coming to a plateau and never tried a different cadence before, try experimenting working towards 180 for a few weeks to give it a chance. I did the same experiment and found that 175 is more ideal for me than 180, but it still feels more natural than my original 160.
If you are a new runner, build up SLOWLY (5-10 at a time) towards 180 as this level likely requires development in your muscles and cardiorespiratory fitness to support. As you progress, you can find your own ideal cadence.
As we age and our fitness level changes, the cadence goal will vary, but 180 is a good start.
Cadence Limits
A fast walk will yield 120. Usain Bolt in his World Record breaking 100m dash reached 240. You’ll be somewhere in between.
Eliud Kipchoge’s Berlin Marathon 2018 World Record (2:01:39) run had an average cadence of 185.
Cadence Measure
You can measure your cadence by counting the total steps in a minute, or the number of times one of your feet contacted the ground times 2.
Many running watches have Cadence as a data point. Garmin shows the Cadence directly, Polar shows the number of times one of your feet contact the ground so you will have to multiply that number by two.
If you want to follow a cadence, you can wear a digital metronome, download a metronome app on your phone, or find music with a similar bpm to follow the beats.
As you gain experience, you can have a good feel of your cadence and adjust depending on situations (e.g. short acceleration). I have been counting steps for my 30 second sprints and it is usually close within a second. This way, I wouldn’t need to awkwardly read my watch mid-way through a timed sprint.
Cadence Training Methods
To improve your Cadence, you’ll need an efficient running posture for your legs to pump out the high movement frequency. Keep your head up and straight, avoid side-to-side arm swings, minimize body twisting, and have light and quick foot contact. A mid-foot strike also promotes higher cadence.
Core stretches such as planks and the superman, short running drills such as butt kicks, A skips, fast feet, and high knees all help a higher cadence.
Run at the right cadence with a metronome or music with a similar beat.
Before your run, dynamic stretches such as arm drives, high knees, and straight leg runs help warm up your body for the higher running cadence.
Equipment-wise, lighter shoes may make it easier
Stride Length
Stride Length is the distance between consecutive steps. Naturally, humans are pretty good at optimizing their stride length.
When you walk, you increase or decrease your stride length by how far apart you place your feet each step. The farther you reach ahead, the longer the stride length, the harder it gets.
It’s easy to confuse the same mechanisms as running. If you reach further forward, you get a longer stride length, and you are faster, right? This is not true and a dangerous misconception.
By reaching further forward, you get into the zone of overstriding. An overstride destroys the forward momentum of your run by physically generating a brake. What’s worse is it causes much greater impact force on your ankles and knees which increases your injury risk significantly.
The misconception is a result from omitting one important phase of running when running – the float phase.
Running is different from walking by having times when both feet are off the floor (floating). The distance you float is the stride length you gain. By overstriding, you reduce your floating distance and reduce your stride length.
Your stride length is determined by your float distance and your float distance is determined by your forward propulsion off the ground.
A longer stride length while maintaining the same cadence will make you faster. To sustain a longer period with a longer stride length, it is necessary to improve your cardiorespiratory fitness at the same time.
Stride Length Goal
The longer the better without sacrificing cadence. If you were to choose between stride length and cadence, aim to hold a steady cadence before adjusting stride length. With a 180 cadence, if you want to run a 5k in 30 minutes, your stride length will need to be 0.93m. If you want to run a 5k in 20 minutes, your stride length will need to be 1.39m.
Stride Length Limits
The walking stride length of an average person is typically the height multiplied by 0.413 for female (0.415 for male), which is around 27.5inches or 70cm. Usain Bolt in his World Record breaking 100m dash reached 2.7m. You’ll be somewhere in between.
Eliud Kipchoge’s Berlin Marathon 2018 World Record (2:01:39) run had an average stride length of 1.90m.
Stride Length Measure
Most GPS watches will have your stride length as a data point.
Otherwise, find a known distance and count your steps. Your stride length is the distance divided by the number of steps.
Stride Length Training
To improve your Stride Length, you’ll need an efficient running posture to open up your strides and minimize your drag. Look far, keep your body straight, lean forward, open up your hip, avoid sideways motion, and develop strong arches to maximize float distance.
Core stretches such as squats and calf raises, short running drills such as accelerating strides, lunges, heel kicks, power skips, and side skips all help a longer stride length.
Hill Sprints and Intervals are also common training sessions to improve stride length.
Before your run, dynamic stretches such as high knee lunges, kicks, hops, and wall drives help activate your leg muscles to achieve a better range of motion.
Equipment-wise, lighter non-baggy clothes can reduce your drag so you float farther.
Make sure your feet land behind your center of gravity. DO NOT overstride.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Cardiorespiratory (Cardio) Fitness is the most important component to your running mechanics and the most challenging to work on. Your cadence and stride length are limited by your cardiorespiratory fitness.
Cardio fitness is your body’s ability to take oxygen from your mouth or nose through your lungs, into your blood stream, pumped through your heart, and into blood vessels that surround your muscles for energy creation. The capability of your lung, strength of your blood, volume of red blood cells, and density of your blood vessels contribute to your cardio fitness.
Your body only gets better over time by learning that it needs the extra capabilities. When you push your limits, your body will strengthen your heart, supply more red blood cells, and develop more blood vessels to carry the extra oxygen in case you need the capacity again.
It is also obvious that without sufficient supply of oxygen, your muscles cannot perform as well and your cadence and stride length will be limited.
You will observe that when you first start running, your heart beats fast and you breath hard just from a short jog. That’s because your cardio fitness is weak. Your body has not been developed to support the extra oxygen demands from jogging.
After a few weeks of jogging, your body will learn and develop the oxygen carrying infrastructure and the jog becomes easier. Your cardio fitness has improved.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness Goal
The stronger the better! Who doesn’t want to run at high speeds and feel comfortable at the same time?
Cardiorespiratory Fitness does not have a direct quantifiable measure. It is more of a feel.
However, the VO2 Max is a close enough objective representation that I find very relevant. VO2 Max, or maximal oxygen consumption, is defined as the maximum millilitres of oxygen consumed per kilogram of body weight per minute. (mL/kg/min)
The higher your VO2 Max, the stronger your Cardiorespiratory Fitness.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness Limits
According to a Mayo Clinic study, the VO2 Max of an average male is 37.9 and the VO2 Max of an average female is 27.6. The VO2 Max peaks when a person is 20-29 years old.
Elite male athletes can achieve VO2 Max of 90, while elite female athletes can achieve 80.
You would lie somewhere in between. For reference, a sub-3 marathoner would have a VO2 Max of around 60.
This number is largely limited by genetics. It is also not a precise number in relation to your actual cardiorespiratory fitness, but it acts as a good reference to see your improvement over a long period of time.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness Measure
The precise way to find out your VO2 Max is going by to a lab, get hooked to a breathing mask and run on a treadmill through your limits. The point where your oxygen consumption rate stagnates is your VO2 Max.
Otherwise, most GPS watches give an indication of your VO2 Max. They aren’t always accurate but you can get a rough idea where you are. The watch typical generates your VO2 Max with your heart rate, age, gender, and your pace. The surface you run on and the climb you have in your route may cause inaccuracies.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness Training
To improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, you need to both push intensity limits, and incorporate long slow activities to build blood volume, muscle strength, endurance, and aerobic fitness.
Training sessions for pushing heart rate limits include 2-3min hill repeats, Intervals, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and altitude training. Sessions for endurance and aerobic fitness include Tempos and Long Slow Distance Runs.
15-minute+ circuit sessions can also boost cardiorespiratory fitness. Squat jumps, squat thrusts, skater jumps, burpees, jumping jacks, push ups, jumping lunges, and rope skipping are a selection of activities appropriate for these circuit sessions.
Putting Cadence, Stride Length, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness together
Every run, you are working on one or all of the 3 components to improve your running performance.
Let’s say at your current cardiorespiratory fitness, you can manage 5k (3 miles) in 30 minutes with a cadence of 160 and a stride length of 1.04m. (Speed of 6min/km)
If you want to improve your performance and finish the 5k in 25minutes (5min/km), instead of just going for some interval sessions and hope for the best, quantify and give some concrete purpose to your training.
For a speed increase of 20%, you can keep your cadence of 160 and increase your stride length by 20% to 1.25m. You will then perform drills that improves your stride length and train your cardiorespiratory fitness for your muscles to have a 20% stronger push.
Alternatively, you can improve your cadence by 12% to 180 and increase your stride length by 7% to 1.11m. You will then work on improving your cadence and your stride length. Then also train your cardiorespiratory fitness for 7%-12% extra work.
Depending on person, either method could work, but one might be easier than the other.
The key is after every training session, you can look at your cadence, stride length data, and VO2 Max to see whether you are getting closer to your goal of running 5k in 25 minutes, and knowing what you should work on.
From my experience, it is most efficient to work first on cadence, then your stride length, while having 50%+ of your training on cardiorespiratory fitness.
| 30 minutes (6min/km, 10min/mile) (10kph) | 25 minutes (5min/km, 8min/mile) (12kph) | 20% Speed Increase | 20 minutes (4min/km, 6.4min/mile) (15kph) | 50% Speed Increase |
| Cadence x Stride | Cadence x Stride | Cadence, Stride % Increase | Cadence x Stride | Cadence, Stride % Increase |
| 160 x 1.04m | 160 x 1.25m | 0%, 20% | 160 x 1.56m | 0%, 50% |
| 170 x 0.98m | 170 x 1.18m | 6%, 13% | 170 x 1.47m | 6%, 41% |
| 180 x 0.93m | 180 x 1.11m | 12%, 7% | 180 x 1.39m | 12%, 34% |
Conclusion
The 3 components Cadence, Stride Length, and Cardiorespiratory Fitness form the mechanics of running. When combined, your running performance can be determined.
Now, every run of yours can have a concrete purpose which you can measure.
If you have a goal speed, you can see how much and what you need to work on to achieve the goal.
If you got bored of running because there aren’t levels to tackle like karate or video games, now there are 3 measurable levels for you to achieve to keep you excited.
The 3 components of running, when understood, can make your training more efficient and more visible. The journey towards your specific goal of a certain running performance can also be measurable now.
Happy Running and Level Up Soon!
I’d be happy to hear your thoughts about my perspective of the 3 components of running. Leave a comment and let me know!
Related Reading
How to Become a Runner: A Comprehensive Guide for Your First Two Months
Why Should I Run? 9 Reasons to Convince Yourself And Your Friends
