How fast is your running cadence?
About 2 years ago I attended a coaching symposium put on by Newton Running Company in Southwest Oklahoma.
Throughout the classroom portion of the course I had been glued to the instructors, hanging on their every word. Not because my form was bad, no obviously I wasn’t a “heel-striker”, but I was incredibly anxious to start helping others run better!
When it came time for my videotaped gait analysis I was excited to see how good I looked…assuming they’d pause the video and use me as the textbook example.
Okay, there I am . . . and . . . wait . . . no, that can’t be right.
Devastation.
I was the textbook example of a heel striker. I looked just like everyone else! Landing in front of my body and putting the brakes on with every step. Unbelievable. Two weeks away from running the New York City Marathon and an expert tells me that my running form is bad and my mechanics need a lot of work.
How do I fix it?
Being so close to a race, what should I do? I approached one of the instructors and asked this very question. I fully expected him to say that I should proceed as I always have and start a slow transition to Natural Running when my race was over.
Wrong again. He explained that nothing good can come from bad form and that I should start working on improving my gait immediately.
Then he said to focus on increasing my cadence. Continue Reading →
