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| Photo from runnersconnect.net |
Going back in time, I used to be a sprinter and short distance runner. I was mostly a forefoot runner, with me being a little more mid foot during the "longer" distances. After college, I was in a severe car accident, followed by another bad car accident a couple years later. When I finally was able to run again, my pace was more than twice as slow as the past and I had lost all of my muscle and gained a substantial amount of weight. Ever since this, I have been a heel striker. To make matters worse, even though I did not over-stride, my foot never rolled all the way through, causing all of the impact to go to my knees. Therefore, all of the core strength I had worked on was worthless.
Why Cadence Training?
Cadence is how many steps per minutes, SPM, you take. The gold standard is 180 SPM. If you want more detail, I had a blog post about Running Cadence. When I was given the green light to start running again in mid 2016, the first thing I did was get my running form analyzed. Although my stride length was good and my upper body form was great, my foot strike was terrible. There are many ways to correct how you land or your foot strike, but the one I went with was cadence, as I only became a heel striker after being injured. For me, mid foot striking is more ideal. Keep in mind this is different for everyone. Meb, for example, is a heel striker and is a world-class runner. However, I have terrible joints from all of my prior injuries. Therefore, I need the impact from running to go onto my muscles, not my joints. Therefore, forefoot or mid foot is what I needed.
Cadence training is a great method to use for this, as typically the faster a person runs while keeping the same stride, the more your body will naturally go from a heel strike to a more mid or forefoot strike. This isn't the case 100% of the time, but is usually the case. As a note, cadence training is much easier to start out training on a treadmill, because the moving belt helps with kickback. But it's best to move outside when you can be more consistent.
My Cadence
My cadence was measured around 150. Therefore, going by the golden 180 SPM rule was the plan. As I have progressed in my initial training, I was able to get up to almost 10 minutes straight at just under 180 SPM while on a treadmill. Therefore, it was time for my plan!
My Plan
The plan is technically an 8-week plan. However, it's designed to with the idea that typically it will take 1-2 weeks of each progression. Therefore, the plan is designed to range from 8 weeks to 16 weeks.
Legend: WU = Warm-up | CD = Cooldown
Week 1/2
- WU walk 2 min
- (Run 5 min, walk 1 min) - 3 Sets
- CD walk 2 min
Week 2/3
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 10 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Week 3/4
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 10 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min, walk 1-2 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Week 4/5
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 15 min, walk 1-2 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Week 5/6
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 15 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min, walk 2 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Week 6/7
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 20 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Week 7/8
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 20 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min, walk 1-2 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
If you feel this will be too easy or not challenging enough, then you can do:
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 25 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Week 8/9
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 25 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
If you feel this will be too easy or not challenging enough, then you can do:
- WU walk 2 min
- Run 30 min, walk 1 min
- Run 5 min
- CD walk 2 min
Again, this plan was to just fix my foot strike. However, the concept of this plan can be used to help run faster, longer. Good luck with your training!
