Today was a good day. I set out to achieve a baseline run of 40 minutes at a 6:15/km pace. Something that I know I can achieve with ease and usually do at a much quicker pace.
But today was different.
Today was an opportunity for me to focus on doing it at a cadence of ~180bpm. Something I've never achieved.
Two weeks ago, I'd run my first recorded run with my new Garmin Forerunner 255. A simple 5km around the lake in the center of Hanoi, Vietnam. When I finished the run, I looked up my stats on Strava, something I'd never been able to do as I didn't have a GPS watch before this.
I had no idea about the amount of data that was available. I tucked in eagerly, reading everything there was on the app.
Apparently, my average cadence was ~160bpm.
This meant nothing to me at first, until I read that a low cadence (<160bmp) was generally associated with over-striding, poor running efficiency and increase risk of injury. None of which I want. Apparently, a cadence of ~180bpm was optimal and that I should strive to gradually increase my cadence up to this.
So, since then, I've been gradually increasing my cadence. First, I increased it to 170bpm, then 175bmp and today up to 180bpm. I felt great, powerful and efficient. I was really surprised actually. I thought increasing my step count would be more tiring but it was the complete opposite. I finished the run with loads of energy left.
I'm very excited to continue my training now at 180bpm and feel very optimistic about how it's going to transition into my performance.
As ever I'll keep you posted. And, if you haven't checked out your cadence and this is something you want to dive into, grab yourself a GPS linked fitness watch, there are loads of cheap options available, and link it to your Strava. From there you can look at your running data and it'll give you your cadence.
I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you have, I ask that you do me a huge favour and share this episode with someone. It really helps grow the show and allows me to keep diving into everything hybrid and keeping you all updated.
Until next time, stay hybrid and enjoy the rest of your day.