Cadence in Running and Performance

the orthopedic told me yesterday that I may need several more weeks of stop (if not months) before resuming running... pretty depressing perspective...

I come up with another chart: how improving the cadence goes down to a benefit in the "bottom line" (racing performance).

So I charted the average cadence of my workouts since I have the Polar Rs800sd, together with the IAAF performance score of my races (across different distance).

(there are many tools over the web to calculate the IAAF points and compare performances on difference distance, eg HERE)

I had to depurate the IAAF scoring my many races held on hilly course or under scorching heat, otherwise it would be a wrong influence on the correlation.

Back in 2006 I soon realized that my cadence (in the low 80s) was far too low compared to what is considered ideal (high 80s, ideally 90). This is really a big contribution given by the Polar Rs800sd and the S3 sensor.

From then, I always worked to improve my 

stride cadence, trying to be light and quick, rather than stomping the feet on the ground. Jack Daniels mentions something like "running on eggs".

The average cadence has gradually gone up (mid 80s), and it matches closely also the trend of the IAAF score. It is a sure call to say that improving the cadence drives an improvement of performance (especially if you current cadence is far from optimal).