The key to capturing cadence

Cadence catcher

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

I finally got outside this morning, for the first time since Sunday's race. The treadmill runs I did yesterday and Wednesday were fine, but I think I run differently on the machine, compared to the road. I wonder if it has something to do with stride length. Outdoors, I never think of how far I extend my legs when I come down, although I do focus on landing on my mid-foot. On the treadmill, a too-long stride is usually announced by the sound of the kick plate at the front of the tread. That feedback surely influences the way I run.

The shorter stride on the treadmill is not necessarily a bad thing, because it probably forces me to increase my cadence to keep up with the tread belt. Mid-foot running supposedly optimizes stride length, and cadence is used like a gas pedal to regulate speed.

This morning I pushed a little harder than I had during the past two workouts because I've recovered from my 13.1 mile run last weekend. I tried to use arm movement to maintain a brisk cadence, but in the end, my overall pace turned out to be just about average. I do wish my Garmin FR210 captured cadence so I could compare it to my speed over a run. Unfortunately, the GPS watch lacks that capability. I suppose I could always count steps. That, or go back to my FR60 that uses a foot pod to capture that metric.