Categories: General

Run Cadence Workout

I ran 12 miles last week along the Valley Parkway trail in the Cleveland Metroparks. It was great weather for running!

I had downloaded a free 30 day trial of a program called Crystal Metronome, which allows you to create metronome files on your computer. A metronome is device which creates sound in a series of continuous beeps at equal time intervals. I created three different sound files to listen to while running, each 2 minutes in length. I put them on my mp3 player and categorized them in their own Genre labeled ‘metronome’. Then I played the Genre, which cycled thru the sound files one at a time in this order:

This turned out to be a great workout to improve my cadence. Each footstrike corresponds to one beep. 160 was easy for me. 170 was moderate, and 180 was hard. I did this for 30 minutes in the middle of my long 12 mile run.

You can download the sound files by clicking on the bulletized links above. Each sound file is about 2 Megabytes.

carolyahoo

Next Swimming »

Previous « 2006 Race Photos

View Comments

Stephen says:

July 17, 2007 at 5:47 pm

Hi Carol:

Great blog! I was interested in doing some running cadence training, and Google yielded your "Run Cadence Workout" blog entry. Thanks for posting these cadence files. I am wondering, have you used them much, and have you been able to increase your cadence with them? If so, has it improved your running? I am training for my first marathon, and the coach of the marathon training group I am in recommended a cadence of 180 bpm. (It seems like I "naturally run at about 160 bpm.).

Thanks,
Stephen