@MonteC wrote:
I get it that you feel using cadence for running is a bad idea but there are many professional running coaches who endorse this training method, even to the point of having their students use metronomes to help track it. I do not know if you are a certified trainer/coach or not but your opinion goes against many others in the field. I am curious what you base your opinion on?
Back to the topic, if all the other trackers on the market have this metric to use for training purposes then I am pretty sure there is some validity to it being a credible training tool. That is why many of us think FitBit should also include this in their trackers.
No, I am not a "certified" trainer or coach, nor to I believe there is such a thing. As with everything else, there are tried and true methods and there are fads. After years of coaching I strongly believe coaching to cadence is a fad or worse, a fraud. For anybody who isn't a world class elite training for a very specific event/distance, training to cadence can and often does lead to injury and is more often than not, counter productive. Even when coaching world class runners the efficacy of cadence centric training is highly debatable, especially when non-track environments are factored in. The fact is, there are so very many variables when it comes to the cadence of any given run, or for that matter, for any given segment of any given run.
I am what might be called a near-elite age grouper; using my fairly extensive log of runs as tracked by my Fitbit trackers, I've seen runs with a cadence as low as 142 during a 2.5 mile race up and down a ski slope, and as high as 173 during an 11 mile road race across rolling hills. If a runner is coached to run at a specific cadence, the odds are pretty good they'll be sub-optimal unless they're running the exact course and distance they've been training in. Not good.
For my part, I would much rather coach a runner to develop his or her own sense of what stride is appropriate for any given conditions. The following is kind of the general guideline I use for coaching those with stride/cadence issues:
- Nose over toes; many beginning runners have a tendency to over stride (which often causes an artificially slow cadence), keeping your nose over your toes will still allow a natural "heal touch" first, but transition the main weight contact to the mid-foot area.
- Run on varied surfaces; initially dirt or grass if available, and then transitioning to a 50/50 mix of irregular surfaces and paved surfaces.
- If locally available, make sure the running courses include lots of hills.
- Long Slow Distance (LSD); I am an advocate of strict LSD for beginning runners; nothing, and I do mean NOTHING improves speed over a 5K distance for a beginning runner better than lots of LSD.
- Once a runner has progressed beyond rank beginner, which in my book typically means a 5K in less than 30 minutes, I coach what I call a "Modified LSD" plan; basically use the LSD running methodology except for the finish. Say a person is training for a 10K, I would have them build their mileage up to eight miles, and then gradually push the last mile, then the last two, then the last three miles up to race pace.
Using the above techniques has resulted in virtually 100% success in remediating any cadence issues while at the same time teaching the runner to subconsciously adjust their cadence to fit the conditions.
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