Cadence training and getting up to 180 steps per minute

Hi, 

There have been a few discussions about 180 steps per minute int he past, and general consensus seems to be if you are training to get faster and want to be injury free, 180 spm is a good target for middle and long distance. 

I have spent some time training with this in mind and it has helped me achieve several PB's from 5k to Marathon. 

Running beats started when I had been running for a year and my training started getting serious. I got my 5k PB down to 20:28 and I was pushing to go sub 20 mins, but I hit a plateau and thought I was never going to get to the elusive sub 20.

I was listening to music whilst running and had bought a foot pod to go with my Garmin. The foot pod accurately tracks your cadence whilst running and after analysing my stats I noticed a few things:

1. I was averaging 165 steps per min, which is well below the average 180 spm of professional athletes.

2. My cadence was dropping off at the end of my 5k

3. My cadence seemed to change throughout the 5k, even when I was running on the flat.

I quickly realised that I was slipping in to time with the music and this was slowing me down. A lot of upbeat music is around 130 bpm which too slow if you tend to run in time with it. I initially looked online and found hundreds of 180bpm playlists for runners, but I found a lot of the music was not to my taste and was really hectic dance tunes. Some tracks I found were ok, but I would listen to the music or words of the song and drift off and lose focus finding my pace had dropped for a minute. You can run double time to 90 BPM music, but I struggled to find something with a strong enough beat to drag me along. Some runners run to a metronome- that would work, but the tick tock sound would potentially drive me mad.

I am a music producer in my free time and figured I could come up with something to listen to whilst running that would give me focus to keep me pressing, but not distract me from the task in hand. My first track 180bpm5kchallenge released in 2016 has been downloaded and played by runners in over 68 countries all round the world in its first year. Using this track I managed to shave 40 seconds off my 5k PB and I am now at a 19:03 PB. It has had thousands of plays on iTunes and Spotify and is currently my best seller. I also released a 170bpm version for an easier session and a 190bpm for those looking for a harder workout.

Here is a POV (point of view) video of me completing the first sub 20 challenge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pQxCOSJgTc

My new album gives 41 minutes of 180bpm beats and sounds for people training for any distance 5k to ultra. There are 10 tracks to keep you focused on your goal with a few different styles to mix it up and keep it interesting.

I have also made a video which demonstrates how it is an ideal cadence for anyone running 12-20 kph – I am 5ft 10ins (1m 78cm) tall- a shorter runner can probably maintain this cadence at 10 kph and a taller runner can keep this going at 22 kph, but I would avoid over striding as this will not be good for your knees and result in breaking and poor form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch_WQpvyi_s&t=2s

Good luck with your training... Here are the album details for anyone who is interested:


“180BPM for Runners” is the new album by Running Beats available on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon and all good music sites.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/180bpm-for-runners/1351896611

https://open.spotify.com/album/0oqlhIppfEERabwTTqMtsz?si=EKbN7BzdQluxwm66kiRf3A

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B2CR7WX/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

Jake Fricker (Author of "I am a Runner" and qualified coach)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AM-RUNNER-marathon-months-training/dp/1520530323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488549043&sr=8-1&keywords=i+am+a+runner

PB’s
5k- 19:03
10k- 39.28
HM- 1:28.25
M- 3:07.59
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