Focusing on This Simple Metric During Easy Days Makes Your Stride Feel Smoother so You Run With Less Effort

One of my favorite movie quotes from The Emperor’s New Groove is when Emperor Kuzco shrieks, “You threw off my groove!” at a villager who accidentally bumps into him. Because lately, that’s exactly how I’ve been feeling when I start my easy runs. I’ll head out for my usual jog, and it will feel stupidly hard for no reason. My stride is awkward, disjointed, a little stiff—and I just can’t seem to get going. In short, my groove is thrown off. Way off. So, in my attempt to get it back, I’ve tried a few different tactics. Focusing on my pace or the time and distance on my watch has proved the exact opposite of helpful in these situations. What does help, though, is turning my attention to an entirely different metric—one that I suspect many runners don’t even keep pinned to their watch screen. But whenever I focus on it, it consistently helps me find my groove again: I settle in, find the rhythm of my stride, and the run begins to feel easier. What to Focus on to Make Runs Feel Easier The metric I focus on when my easy runs feel hard is cadence, or the number of steps you take per minute (spm). But I’m not just keeping an eye on it; I’m trying to increase this number. Laura Norris, an RRCA-certified run coach, exercise scientist, and cohost of the Tread Lightly podcast, explains that when you drop below your usual cadence, running can feel harder because you’re not moving with efficiency. “That lower cadence is going to cost more energy, which can make our perceived effort feel higher,” she says. You might feel like your stride is a little “off,” like you just can’t quite settle into your usual rhythm. It’s also why you might hear some runners say, counterintuitively, that it actually feels harder—not easier—for them to go slow on their easy days, Norris adds. That described exactly what I’d been experiencing recently in the early miles of my runs. I’d look at my watch within the first 15 minutes of my jog and see my cadence hovering somewhere in the 160s. But once I focused on hitting at least 170 steps per minute, the effort came more naturally. Why Does Cadence Matter? Norris says many runners lower their cadence on easy runs in an effort to slow their pace and avoid going too fast. And while our cadence at slower speeds will typically be lower than our cadence at faster paces, each runner still has a fairly narrow range that’s most efficient for them. Dropping below it can make an easy run suddenly feel like a slog. Your ideal cadence isn’t entirely within your control, Norris explains, because your neuromuscular system works behind the scenes to shape your gait and running mechanics. “When you start a run, there’s all this communication that has to go neurally between your brain and muscles to help you warm up. Those things are automatic in the sense that we don't necessarily have to think hard about them,” Norris says. “Essentially, your body is figuring out its most efficient cadence for the intensity you’re aiming for that day.” But sometimes, those neuromuscular firings take more time than we’d like them to. One thing that can cause delays? Fatigue. Hard training can create a bit of central nervous system fatigue, which can temporarily disrupt communication between your brain and muscles, Norris says. Additionally, running can cause a small amount of muscle damage. “Damaged or tired muscles can also be a bit less efficient in their motor unit firing,” she explains. But as you warm up and get blood flowing to those working muscles, those units begin to fire a little more smoothly and you’ll start to feel better. So if a runner starts out below their usual cadence, intentionally trying to bump up their steps per minute into their optimal range can help, Norris says. So how do you figure out your optimal cadence so you can pick it up? “Cadence is very individual—there’s no uniform steps per minute that every runner should aim for,” Norris says. The famous “180 spm” that we hear about comes from a statistical observation that the late Jack Daniels made by watching elite runners in a 3K race, Norris says. But just because those runners averaged about 180 spm during a hard, fast effort doesn’t mean that’s the cadence we should all try to achieve. “Each runner has their most economical gait, and that’s what their body can fall into and run with using the least amount of energy,” Norris explains. And because so many factors influence cadence—your height, pace, level of fatigue, and the terrain you’re running on—it’s not helpful to compare your cadence to your running buddy’s, she says. To find your most efficient cadence, start by reviewing the data collected by your running watch. “If you look at your runs at different intensities, you’ll begin to see patterns over time,” Norris says. For example, you might check the average cadence of your easy runs and see that it usually lands somewhere between 170 and 175. During your faster workouts, you might see that your average trends a bit higher, maybe between 175 and 180. “Most runners will find they usually fall within a 5 to 10 spm variation, depending on how fast they’re going and how fatigued they are,” Norris says. But it’s important to determine your ranges from your watch data retrospectively—not in the middle of a run. “If you try to hit a certain cadence during your run to then use as a reference point going forward, that will make your data a lot less accurate,” she explains. What Can Help You Find Your Rhythm Faster? One practice that can help you settle into your most efficient cadence more quickly when you start a run is simply warming up. Try plyometric drills that mimic a similar motion pattern to running, as they help facilitate the same neuromuscular connections. “Pogo hops, bounding, A-skips, and B-skips help prime the muscle fibers for how we want them to move. They wake up the neuromuscular system, which can help you settle into your stride more quickly,” explains Norris. You don’t need a long warmup routine though. Choose three plyometric exercises and do two sets of eight reps of each—that’s all you need to help facilitate that important mind-to-muscle communication. Another fun option to try? Jumping or skipping rope. “Some research suggests that just five minutes of jumping rope as a running warmup can improve performance,” Norris says. “Part of the reason why is because it can help you settle into your most economical gait.” Jumping rope has worked especially well for me. I’m likely to cut out traditional drills and stretches, but I’ve found a little prerun jump rope too fun to pass up. (Plus, it’s led me down the fascinating rabbit hole of competitive Double Dutch on YouTube.) Two or three minutes before I head out has already made a noticeable difference: I’ve got a bit more pep in my step that helps me settle into my ideal cadence and my easy running groove. Morgan is a gear editor who has been with Runner’s World since 2017. She started as an intern ghostwriting The Warmup, a bygone version of the daily RW newsletter. Now, she tests and reviews anything you might find on runners’ feet-from crew socks and compression boots to carbon-plated super shoes. A lifelong runner and shoe geek, Morgan has been chasing the perfect pair of kicks since she joined her grade school cross-country team. Since then, she ran as a Division I walk-on for the cross-country and track & field teams at the University of Delaware, where she studied English and Biology. She has one full marathon under her belt, and has raced more halfs and 5Ks than she can count.