Take slightly quicker, slightly shorter steps. That's the whole of it.
Cadence is how many steps you take in a minute, counting both feet. Your watch records it. Most new runners are somewhere between 150 and 165.
Why anyone cares
Fewer, longer steps mean more time in the air, which means you land harder and further in front of yourself. Every one of those landings is a small brake followed by a push to get going again.
Quicker, shorter steps mean you land closer to underneath your body, with less of a jolt each time. The distance covered is the same; the pounding is not.
The 180 myth
You will read that 180 steps per minute is the target. It comes from someone counting elite runners at the 1984 Olympics — who were racing, and who were mostly small and fast.
Cadence properly depends on your height, your leg length and how fast you are going. A tall person running easy at 6:30/km has no business at 180. Your own number plus five percent is a better target than anyone else’s number.
How to change it
Do not think about it while running — thinking about your feet makes everything worse. Instead:
- Find your normal cadence on a recent easy run.
- Add about 5% and pick music or a metronome at that rate.
- Use it for ten minutes of an easy run, then forget about it.
- Repeat for a few weeks.
It will feel ridiculous and slightly frantic for about two runs. Then it stops feeling like anything, which is how you know it has taken.
What not to do
Do not try to run faster by taking longer steps. That is overstriding, and it is slower as well as harder on you. Speed comes from pushing back against the ground, not from reaching forward.