Is My Cadence Good For Running? | GTN Coach's Corner

Welcome to another GTN Coaches Corner where we answer your questions which you've left below our videos using the hashtag GTN Coaches Corner and you can do the same below this one. We'll answer it next week, potentially. So, first question is from Sebastian Brachard and he says, so, hashtag Coaches Corner, my question, I've raced a lot in hot conditions and cramping, always, to help myself with a better hydration plan. Cool, glad you solved it. On to the next question. No. Now, I got to France this past June and it was cold for me. I ended up back where I was a few years back, cramping 500 meters into the run of the 70.3. Why? What comes into play to training in Dubai above 30 degrees and racing under 23 degrees and the water even colder blow my race up? If so, how do you attempt to tackle that when you can only afford to be at the race location for two days prior to the race or one day this year due to French elections? We actually had a similar question in last week's show, although maybe not the same scenario, but we discussed cramping. Actually, the mechanisms and the causes of cramps aren't all fully understood. Now, obviously, you figured out that you maybe need to have some electrolytes to figure out your fueling plan because you were cramping before, but obviously, going to the cold or colder conditions and still cramping is a little unusual. I would say this is probably down to less or reduction in blood flow due to the cold, and therefore, your muscles are spasming and cramping as well. I don't think it's that unusual. I actually cramp. If I swim in cold water, I'm almost guaranteed at some point my calves or feet will cramp. The cold water just reduces that blood flow. You're still using the muscle, but it's not getting the flow because it's so cold and it gets to the point where you're cramping. Maripod, I just got COVID. It's spreading like wildfire again. I'm 10 weeks out from my first full Ironman. I've done some reading and found that exercising too quickly after COVID can be damaging to the cardiovascular system. What's the approach specifically to COVID and is it worth it to risk getting to training early even if I feel good? Now, first off, we are not doctors. Disclaimer. Yes. Do go seek some qualified professional medical advice on this. Then listen to their advice. But we will say that if you weigh it up, and we put our coach's hats on you, if you weigh it up and you go, if I don't rush back into training, what are you risking? You're risking a poor performance in the race or even DNFing that race, DNSing that race, not starting, not racing that race, losing the money that you invested in that race. If you start too soon and your body is not ready, you're risking long-term health complications. If you weigh those two things up, the decision is pretty easy. I know it feels like this is your big important race that you train so much for, and it's really important. You really don't want to miss it. COVID has really messed you up. If you put yourself five years in the future and look back, you'll go, well, I could have just done another one the next year. Just refocus. I've said this before on other shows, often you find if you then just wait another few days, a week, it's amazing how much better you might suddenly find you feel even though you thought you were fully recovered a week ago. Also, you got to think of even if you don't end up with long-term health effects, actually, just the fact that you might be limping along for the next couple of weeks and then actually had you just taken an extra few days to recover, you could have been straight back into it. Be 100% sure before you get into challenging your body with proper training. Next one from martin323, hashtag GTN coaches corner. A question about running cadence. Thanks to Heather's video on improving cadence, I was able to improve mine. Cheers. For me, it depends on pace. For average pace of, say, five minutes per kilometer, my running cadence is above 170. For a recovery run around six minutes per kilometer, I get around mid-150s cadence. When doing intervals, I can get above 190 with a pace around 3 minutes 40 per kilometer. Do those numbers make sense? Generally, I don't compete, I just enjoy trail running. Should I aim for a higher cadence at all paces? To me, it makes sense that if I have slower run, I have a slower cadence, but does this make cadence as a less useful metric? Is there something like a pace-adjusted cadence? How should I think about it when running upslash downhill? Working on your cadence can make you a more efficient runner. If you've diagnosed that that might be an issue for you, if you're over striding, if you're taking long, loping strides, and you're potentially putting your foot in front of your center of gravity, then working on your cadence can actually be a really good way of improving your running economy and your running efficiency. Your cadence is very much dependent on your speed. Your cadence will not be the same at six minutes a K as it is at three and a half minutes a K. We often hear the touted 180 to 190 SPM for the magic number, and that is from elite marathon runners during a race. They're not necessarily doing that in their six-minute per K shuffles, Kenyan shuffles. Everyone's cadence drops off with a pace decrease. When you're looking at what you should be aiming for, what you need to do is measure your cadence, your natural cadence at those different paces. At six minutes a K, at five minutes a K, three minutes 40 a K, what is your natural cadence? Then if you're looking to improve that, knock 5% off each of those numbers. Go 5% better at all of those. If it's 150, knock 5% off that for your easy runs. When you're doing your intervals, it's 180, go 5% higher for that one. Improve your cadence at each of those pace by the same amount, but don't aim for a magic 180 or 190. You can't do that all the time. In fact, you could probably only do that at a certain, very specific pace, which may correspond with your race pace or it may not, but you can work on your cadence. For many runners, we do find that that is actually something that will improve their economy if they just get about 5% better on their cadence. Mark Threlfall, nice one. Next question from Clay8717, new to triathlon and trying to figure out how to train when I have at least 20,000 steps Monday through to Friday during work. I'm always tired and can never seem to have strength to train running or swimming. Could you help out any way? I'm training with Matt Fitzgerald, book week-by-week training. Yes, tough challenge fitting in training around a physical job. Not impossible, but yes, it is difficult because you have to factor in that fatigue that you're going to get from every day. There are some positives to this. Yes, definitely. You can take some positives. If you structure it well, you can actually, you're almost getting free training. If you go training after your long day on your feet, you're essentially training on fatigue muscles. That's great. That's really good. You're going to get more benefit from it. A lot of people have to run for an hour before they get to that point where their legs are fatigued enough that they're having the training effect so that you're already there, which is great. However, you also want to be careful of not doing high-intensity stuff, not doing anything that pushes too hard or puts too much strain on already tired muscles. You need to make sure that you structure your training well. We would suggest do your high-intensity stuff, your quality stuff, your faster runs before work, so two or three mornings a week, get up early, do that before work, and then do your endurance stuff after work when you're tired. Do your quality stuff either before or on the weekends when you're not physically tired from that. Swimming is a great way to recover from lots of time on your feet, but we do understand the fatigue aspect of that too. Same thing, do a couple of swims before work so you can do that fresh, proper swimming. Then when you're just going for an aerobic swim, you can do that after work when you're tired, put a pull buoy in so you're not really using those tired legs, and just get some aerobic miles in. That way, you structure around. You have to factor in the rest of your life. You can't just print a training program from a book or from a website and go, right, I'm going to follow that, and it's just going to have to fit in around my physical job. You have to factor in your physical job. One thing I would add into this as well is you probably need to just be careful with the fact that you are doing so much physical work all week that you do need to give your body a bit of TLC and look after it. It'd be very easy just then, just on top of the demands of your daily job, then just start trying to cram in every bit of training you possibly can and not actually looking after your body. Do factor that in and respect that, that you will perhaps need the day off or recovery day, maybe more so than or more often than other people. Yes, that's a good point. Some people will spend the whole week at their desk, are happy to go and spend five or six hours training on the weekend. If you spend your whole week doing something physical, you might actually use that weekend for a day off training rather than a day of doing extra training or bigger miles. Just factor that in, too, because some people are sitting at their desks all week. Next one, Francois Riviere. GTN Coaches Corner recently added a faster shoe to my rotation. I've been running for numerous years in the Soconia Kinvaris, which have a four-millimeter drop for all my runs. Now, I added the Soconia Endorphin Speed 3, which have a nylon plate and eight-millimeter drop. I only use the Speed 3 shoes for interval workouts and races, but when I switch between the shoes, I get pain in my heels that I never experienced before alternating between shoes. The pain is not enough to stop running but still uncomfortable, mostly after a run. Could this be related to the change in drop or different cushioning? Is it best to always run with shoes that have the same drop? Thank you. It's almost certainly due to the change in shoes and that increased drop, an extra four-millimeter drop there. Essentially, with all that extra cushioning, you've accustomed your body to running and your foot strike hitting in a certain way. Your brain has subconsciously wired itself to expect the heel to hit the ground at a certain point. It's now going to hit the ground four millimeters earlier, essentially. While your body adjusts, you're going to pound those pavements a little bit harder than you were used to. Even with the cushioning in those new shoes, you're going to feel that in your heels. You're going to feel that in your lower legs. There's two potential answers. One, stick to four millimeters all the time. Don't change your shoes. Buy the ones that are four millimeter drop. If that's what you used to, you never had injuries, don't change it. If you are going to change it, bring it in gradually. Use those shoes. I know you say only use them for the fast ones, but you actually have to use it for some of the easy runs too where you reprogram your brain to be able to adjust to those shoes so that you aren't hitting the ground too early, over-striding, anything like that that might cause your heel and your lower leg to take a bit more impact than it should. Also, some conditioning work in the gym as well, just prepare for that. Don't just go in all guns blazing and continue with your training as you ordinarily would and suddenly just do the odd session with those pair of shoes. It definitely needs a bit of a transition. Yes, the easy solution is to stick to four-millimeter drop. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you are ever going to transition from one heel drop to a different one, give your body a lot of time to make that adjustment. It's a big adjustment. Yes, it is. All right, well, thanks ever so much for all the questions. Please keep them coming in using the hashtag GTN Coaches Corner. See you next time. Cheers.