Cadence and Summer

I’ve been thinking about my cadence lately – you know, the rate that your legs turn over? Apparently the ideal cadence is 180 times per minute. I timed myself and was hitting 172. It’s not far off, but I think that increasing my cadence may increase my speed and running efficiency.

I ran 18k last week and for the first little while tried to concentrate on increasing my leg turn-over. This isn’t the same as just running faster, it’s shortening your stride. The result was a slow awkward pace that felt weird and uncomfortable. By the 5k mark, I ditched my cadence analysis and reverted to my comfortable running style.

Looking back, I think that a long run is not the time to try to change stride.

I’ve also heard that a treadmill is a better place to work on cadence, as you can concentrate on your stride without changing speed. The speed is set on the treadmill, so you can be sure that your legs are turning over more quickly without affecting your pace.

In other news, I’ve been on a bit of a run streak lately. Today will be day 7 (I’m shooting for 30). Day four was definitely the toughest so far, as I was tired and unmotivated. I knew I needed something to make me feel energized (and a slow 3k wasn’t going to do that), so I went for a quick bike ride and followed it with my 3k. I don’t know if it was the ride or the bike/run combo that seemed to shake out the fatigue in my legs, but since then, I’ve been feeling great. Yesterday, I played recreational soccer and decided to count that as a run (it was 70 minutes of sprinting). My ankle is a little swollen this morning (I twisted it or something) and while I don’t know to break my streak this early in the month, I’m not entirely sure that I really should run. I’m thinking I may just run an easy mile on the treadmill.

I write my last (!!!) final exam on Thursday, and am very much looking forward to being a stay-at-home-mom this summer for the first time in three years. September will bring about a part-time job, but this summer will be kids and sunshine and bubbles and pools and probably a little bit of boredom, but, ahh, I’ve been waiting for this all year.

Marathon training is going well and the Halifax Chapter of Team in Training is 60+ people. My husband and I are playing rec soccer this summer and he’ll be taking two weeks (the longest he’s taken in three years!) vacation in July, and quite frankly, things couldn’t be going better.

What about you? What are your summer race plans? What are you training for?