Cadence, it's all Cadence

Did I mention high cadence in a previous post? One of Coach Cindy's simplest and most intriguing requirements has been to run at 180rpm (so to speak). To me, that's ridiculously small steps! But oh boy do they increase efficiency. Today's 3 hour run through 4000 feet up and down and 16 miles was a walk in the park (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit - the other way) with the higher cadence - and that after five days of sustained training. Long live short strides!

After I wrote this post, I ran into research studies mentioned by the NYT - they conclude that a shorter stride decreases the probability of a tibia stress fracture - the decrease in load intensity is higher than the increase in load cycles.