tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674707.post-58761556974272400012008-04-19T12:08:00.000-06:002008-04-19T12:08:00.000-06:00Hi Joanne, nice to hear from you again. I imagine that your race is finished by now (1:53 EDT), and I hope you did well and enjoyed it.<BR/><BR/>You asked about getting up to 180 bpm. Take your time getting there. Speed training puts a lot of stress on our bodies. Jeff Galloway has a method called Cadence Drills that I like. I got it from his book about running until you're 100. Run for 30 seconds at your normal LSD pace and count the number of times your left foot hits the ground. Then, without stopping, run for 30 seconds and count the number of times your left foot hits the ground as you try to increase your stride by 1 or 2 times. That isn't a big increase, but over time it will help you to go faster. The idea is to make small increases in your stride so you keep the increased stress low. Notice the two phases to the drill. After you've run both phases, run for a few minutes to recover, and then if you want to you can repeat both phases again. Always do both phases together.<BR/><BR/>Last fall after Bruce and I ran the Salt Lake City half in April 2006, I decided to increase my LSD pace. At that time my LSD pace was 11:30 to 12:00 for a comfortable pace. By October (6 months) my LSD pace was 10:00 to 10:30. I thought that was a good improvement for an old guy. Then in November I injured my leg. In December I slipped on ice and really bruised my back and tailbone. In the Spring I had the flu. So, I expect my pace will be slow again, but that is ok. It will come back. I've always had a cadence close to 180, so I didn't have to worry about that. During that six months, I just focused on going a bit faster. I didn't try to increase my stride length. I let my body do that automatically. Some of the time, my cadence was up to 90 :)<BR/><BR/>Your stride is 166, so it shouldn't be hard to get it up to 180. Take a couple of months doing that, by taking smaller steps more often.Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879512265582253237noreply@blogger.com