If you do not run with a movable metronome -- the kind that clips on your waist band or hydration belt and reliably beeps at whatever rate you elect -- then you may not know how critical one can be to keep you running with a steady cadence.
What is cadence, and how does it review to pace?
Your cadence is the estimate of steps that you take per minute. Your pace is normally defined as the estimate of minutes that it takes you to run a mile, although it can be defined per kilometer instead of mile. Your pace is defined by your cadence and your stride, which is the length of your step.
For example, if your running cadence is 160 steps per minute, and your running tour is 3 feet per step, then your running pace is exactly 11:00/mile. (160 steps per limited times 3 feet per step times 11 minutes = 5,280 feet, which equals one mile.)
But suppose you want to improve your pace -- that is, cut the time that it takes you to run one mile.
You could increase your stride, but overstriding can be injurious. Or you could increase your cadence; in other words, you could increase the "turnover" rate of your feet.
And a movable metronome will help you to reliably increase your cadence so that you can improve your pace!
Continuing the above example, if you were to increase your cadence to 200 steps/minute while keeping your tour at 3 feet per step, then your running pace would improve to 8:48/mile -- 2:12/mile best than the original pace. Over the length of a marathon (26.21875 miles), this would cut your marathon time by more than 57:40. (Wow!)
Or suppose that you want to keep your pace the same but sell out your tour so that you become less likely to compose an overstriding injury (perhaps based on advice from a sports physiologist or health-care professional).
You can use a movable metronome to help you to reliably increase your cadence with that shorter tour so that your pace remains constant!
Still continuing the above example, if you were to increase your cadence to 200 steps/minute while keeping your running pace at 11:00/mile, then you could sell out your tour to just 2' 4.8" per step -- more than 7 inches shorter than the original stride!
So take your selection on what you want to achieve with a movable metronome:
You can use it to improve your pace by expanding your cadence while keeping your tour what it was. You can use it to shorten your tour to a safer, less-injury-prone length per step by expanding your cadence while keeping your pace the same. You can even mix these two techniques to improve your pace a bit while shortening your tour a bit.
Whatever you choose, happy running!
Seiko
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