Cadence doesn’t sound like the sexiest topic in running. But if you’ve ever dealt with shin splints, weird knee pain, or just felt like your running was clunky or inefficient… there’s a good chance your cadence has something to do with it.
Running cadence is one of the simplest, most overlooked tools for running faster, more efficiently, and with fewer injuries—and once you know how to tweak it, everything starts to click.
Here’s what I’ve learned about running cadence, how to find yours, and how to adjust it without obsessing over numbers or losing your running rhythm completely.
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What is running cadence?
Running cadence is simply the number of steps you take per minute. You might also hear it called 'stride rate', not to be confused with 'stride length', more on that later.
And while that sounds straightforward, it actually plays a huge role in:
Your running form
How efficiently you use your energy
Your risk of injury
And yes, how fast you can actually go
Cadence works together with stride length—the distance covered by each step.
So your speed = cadence × stride length.
Elite runners? They’ve mastered both. But for the rest of us, tweaking cadence is usually the easiest way to improve without completely overhauling everything.
What’s a good cadence?
You’ve probably heard 180 steps per minute thrown around as the ideal number. And it’s a useful reference point—but it’s by no means a rule.
