Easy + (bordering on moderate) run. Average pace: 9:42.
Weather at 6:15 am: 22°F, 82% humidity, minimal wind.
I did a lot of cadence counting and thinking about cadence on my run this morning. During the first two miles, which I consider my warmup, my cadence was about 170-172. Later, when I was warmed up, it was around 176. My pace was faster with the 176 cadence, but wasn't really an increased level of effort since I was warmed up. However, I found that I hard a hard time increasing my cadence without increasing my pace. This lead me to some conclusions.
Pace is a product of cadence and stride length. If you're running at a given pace and you want to maintain that pace while increasing your cadence, you have to have a corresponding decrease in stride length. Theoretically, you could do this for any pace. However, I came to the conclusion that we each have a sort of minimal reasonable stride length. For certain slower paces, you would have to decrease your stride length beyond your minimal reasonable stride length in order to increase your cadence to 180. I think the minimal reasonable stride length can vary from person to person. So I guess my conclusion is that on an easy run, depending on your easy pace, it might not be reasonable to have a cadence of 180 because that would require your stide length to be shorter than you can comfortably maintain.
On a different (but possibly related) topic, my easy pace was faster yesterday and today than it has been recently. I guess that's what 3 consecutive rest days will do for you.
Bonnie said yesterday that she thought I can run my upcoming half marathon in 1:50. I appreciate the compliment, and it gives me something to shoot for. But that would be an average pace of 8:24. I wonder if I could do it. I've got to figure out a pacing strategy for the half marathon. | 