Step right up!

    
     We got Progress, right here in River City! Progress with a capital P and that rhymes with C and that stands for Cadence!  Had a nice Ah-ha! moment kind of deal today on a Sunday longish run. It was very sweet indeed. It all started with a heart rate monitor...

   I've been re-reading about training with a heart rate monitor, mostly from this site, (another take on it here) and have decided to try this training right after the quickly approaching Carmel marathon. So I got a heart monitor strap for my Garmin and finally curiously tried it out today. I use the contraption sparingly, usually when I'm on an unfamiliar course or want to measure a specific distance, and generally turn it on and ignore it until the run ends. I'd rather pay attention to whatever I'm running past than data on my wrist. But watching the beats of my heart was pretty fascinating to see and I was checking it a lot. In a nutshell, the formula has my training HR limit right at 130, and, at least at first, the challenge is supposed to be in running slow enough to keep under your limit. But, after racing up to 145 right off, mine settled in at 120-125 at my normal training pace. Either I have a turbo-charged super efficient pumper, a defective Garmin, or my formula interpretation is whack. I like the former.

     Anyhow, checking the watch so often got me thinking about numbers, and 180 came to mind, which is widely accepted as a model for running cadence. I was not far into the run and still not quite up to speed, and still a little tired from 19 miles yesterday, and counted 30 strikes for my right foot in 30 seconds- times 2 for a minute and times 2 for both feet = 120, pretty low. Pick it up here, dude. I shifted up to what felt about like my normal pace and did some math, realizing that 45 single foot strikes equals the magical 180 and checked again, still low at 140. Dang. One more bump up and- hey wait, what's this?- I felt smooth, light, and easy, and my HR was still in the low 120's.

      I've been making a sustained effort to change my form for the last few years, with some good progress, and am mindful of this as I run, usually. I was your classic heel striking over strider and running faster meant running harder. Two knee surgeries later I started learning as much as I could about better running form and feel I've made some good progress, still with room for improvement. On-line videos, books and articles, DVDs, an all-day Chi Running session, and a few local form clinics have all helped a lot and left me with a string of cues to keep in mind. I know I run with my head down and still, frustratingly heel strike, though much less. Like cooking a good meal, working on form is a work in progress, hard to do right all the time, and steady progress leads to more possibility of improvement. I now firmly believe that proper form is the key to long-term healthy running, and at some point I'll go into more detail in a future post.

     By picking up my running cadence, my stride shortened slightly, which put my feet in a better landing pattern, which made me feel lighter and smoother, and the swirl of form cues all seemed to fall into place at once. Ha! Hey- this is great! Look at me! Or maybe the endorphins had just kicked in, but something happened. I continued and finished the run trying to lock in this change and I do feel like this was the easiest I have run the hilly 8.5 mile course I know well. Also, my HR never did get much higher and I finished with a 123 average, including some spikes on uphills. I need to explore the HR training formula further and do some testing to find my best range, and that will be interesting.

     So, pretty exciting and I sure do hope I can make this my new norm and not just a one run thing. If running form is the key to running well and well into your lifespan and potential, is cadence then the key to that form? I was still a little under 180, but am very curious to see what happens with this week's training.