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Your bo

dy really does love rhythms. I would actually say it thrives on them. When you think about it, your heartbeat, your breath rate and your need for rest are all based on rhythms that occur naturally in your body or that you've established in your life. So for me, the thinking has been that the more rhythms I can establish, the better my body will respond. I have found that when my body has a rhythm to follow, it doesn't have to work as hard. It knows what to do and when to do it. If I go to bed at the same time every night and I get up at the same time every morning, my body knows, "Now it's time to rest, now it's time to get up." So it followed for me that if I stuck to routines, I would generally know what to expect. If I don't follow a usual rhythm, I generally end up feeling rushed, confused and frantic, and I can suffer as a result. I hate being late for things for example so always have to make sure I am doing things ahead of time to make sure I deliver. So what's this post all about you ask? Well one rhythm I'm aware of every time I run is my running cadence, or the number of strikes per minute I'm taking on each leg. You may not be surprised to know I've made a study of it 🙂 Studies have found that most people perform best when they run with a steady, rhythmic cadence. This cadence varies slightly from person to person based on height, body structure and weight, but the optimal cadence falls between 85-90 strikes per minute, per leg. I found running at a consistent cadence so beneficial, I started running a while back with a clip-on metronome. My response was pretty consistent. Remarkable even. I strapped my Garmin to my ankle and my splits per mile over my first 10 mile run with it were all within one second. I’ve developed it a lot in recent months whilst continuing to work on form and mechanics. I got a client to wear one on the New York Marathon recently. Having trained on it we set the cadence at a PB marker and the 26 miles brought him home on pace and every mile was within one second of each other. You try doing that on a watch! Several clients have said that the metronome gives them a sense of stability in their running because their cadence becomes the single constant that underlies everything else that's going on when they're running. I use it almost every time I run now. It helps me most in creating a sense of effortlessness in my legs and it is, without question, the best training tool for running I've ever used. Give it a try. #LookAfterYourBody