With the 2013 World Champs in full swing and the Jamaican hold on the 100m titles complete for another year, I thought it was time to return to the question about running cadence.
Earlier I said the ideal cadence is around 180 steps per minute for most types of running, but in sprinting the story is a little different. Over the last few days the top performers in the 100m have turned up these results:
– Usain Bolt: 221 steps per minute (36 steps to cover 100m—meaning he covers almost three metres per step)
– Justin Gatlin: 231 (38)
– Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: 286 (51—that’s two metres per step)
Now, because speed is a simple equation of stride length x stride rate (cadence), I can look at my own jogging speed of around 4mins/km with a cadence of about 180 and calculate I have a stride length of 1.39 metres. If I was to keep that same stride length and match the professional sprinters’ cadences above, these are the speeds I could reach:
– Bolt’s cadence + my stride length: 3:15min/km
– Gatlin’s cadence + my stride length: 3:07min/km
– Fraser-Pryce’s cadence + my stride length: 2:31min/km
With these cadences I’d be faster than jogging, but certainly not sprinting, compared to the phenomenal 1:37min/km pace that Bolt is hitting. So, to get somewhere closer to Bolt (emphasis on “somewhere”) I need to increase my stride length when sprinting in combination with my increased cadence.
So let’s take my stride length up to Fraser-Pryce’s 2 metres per step (and given she’s just 1.52m tall compared to my 1.77m, I think I should be able to manage that):
– Bolt’s cadence + 2m stride length: 2:16min/km
– Gatlin’s cadence + 2m stride length: 2:10min/km
– Fraser-Pryce’s cadence + 2m stride length: 1:45min/km
Now we’re talking.
However, there are two problems with this calculation:
- The leg turnover of Fraser-Pryce (at almost 5 steps per second) is insane. I just can’t see myself having anything like the fast twitch muscle fibres she has. Gatlin’s 231 steps per minute seems like a more realistic goal;
- You can’t just magically increase both stride length and stride rate. Something at a muscular level needs to change and that change comes predominantly through increased power.
So ultimately the question comes back to the need to increase power. But as a distance runner I’ve taught my muscles to be efficient, not so much powerful. So can a distance runner be both powerful and efficient?
The fact that most elite competitive 5k or 10k races are won with a final lap of between 53 and 55 seconds, I would say the answer is yes. And rumour has it that 10k specialists Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, both trained by Alberto Salazar, have clocked around 11 seconds for a rolling 100m time trial. Similarly, Arthur Lydiard trained up double-800m gold medalist Peter Snell on a diet of endurance running and he still had the power to kick away from the quickest 800 runners on the planet.
While there is a large degree of natural talent in the above examples, it is proof that relative power and efficiency can co-habit. And if anything, the fact that the two coaches above are/were renowned for their use of the gym on one hand and the hills on the other, it does give you a couple of clues on how to at least harness, if not increase, any natural power you have within you.
Stride length and cadance change so much when you are sprinting versus running.. I wonder what you are trying to say.. Also making comparison with the top 0.0001%, is not the best way to make your point.
A distance runner can certainly put in a good 400 meter. And its definitly one of the toughest sprint numbers. But a “hardcore” sprinter, will be far of his top speed at this distance.
The fact that a 0.00001% long distance runners, run the 400 at a speed a 17 year old kid who is specialized on the distance, but is far of winning a medal, should make you think how fast this really is compared to a sprinter. During competition, we use sprinters and 2000 meters runners for this distance. Mainly beceause both can excel at this distance.
11 seconds on a rolling start.. that’s 32,7 km/hour.. Even the 55 years old masters who run track run faster.. remember you are talking of the top 0.0001% runners.. which makes you think how fast a “normal” long distance runner would sprint