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Maintaining High Turnover When Running Slowly
by Ken Mierke

Running with high turnover (180-182 foot-strikes per minute) increases running efficiency and reduces
the risk of injury. Many runners maintain high turnover during tempo runs, track workouts, and races,
but fail to do so when running at a basic endurance pace. Learning to maintain the same turnoverwhen running at any speed will improve your training and racing.
Elite runners of any height and leg length, generally run with a cadence between 180 and 182 steps per
minute. Watch the lead pack in a road race the next time you get the opportunity. You will be amazedat the incredible synchronicity of the runner’s strides. Efficient runners of significantly different height
and leg length consistently chose almost identical turnover rates. Why would a 6’2” professionalrunner use the same turnover rate and significantly shorter stride length (proportionate to height) than
a 5’4” runner?
One major reason for this is caused by the nature of the elastic responses of human tissue. At a given
pace, longer strides mean more contact time with the ground. This reduces the benefit of elastic
recoil, causing the muscles to contract more forcefully. Even though a taller runner’s legs may belonger, his elastic tissues respond just like shorter runners’. When human tissue is stretched andreleased, it snaps back forcefully. This enables runners to store energy in the Plantar Fascia, theAchilles tendon, and the Soleus and Gastrocnemius muscles from one stride and return that energy as
propulsion in the next stride. Optimal use of elastic recoil is a major difference in efficiency differences
between runners.
Runners’ tissues snap back forcefully when stretched and released, but they do not when stretchedand held, even for a very short time period. When the stretch is held, even for a fraction of a second,
the stored energy dissipates, resulting in far less energy returned as elastic recoil. The taller runnermust take strides that are proportionally shorter (compared to leg length) in order to keep contact
time between the feet and ground short to enable the energy return from elastic recoil.
The second reason is that a longer stride necessitates greater vertical displacement. If I wanted tothrow a baseball 20 feet, I could basically throw it on a straight line without much arc. To throw theball 50 yards, however, I would have to arc it upward, because gravity would have a long time to act on
the ball. In the same way, running with long strides forces runners to move up and down more thanshorter strides.
Longer strides also require the muscles to contract more forcefully to create horizontal propulsion.
First of all, to cover 20% more ground, even with optimal efficiency, 20% more force at push-off would
be required. Factoring in the need for vertical displacement and the loss of power from elastic recoil,and the increase in force required at push-off is staggering.
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Contracting muscles more forcefully fatigues them far more than contracting them frequently with lessforce. Each of our muscles is made up of thousands of different muscle fibers. These muscle fibers fall
into two basic categories (though there are also several sub-categories), slow-twitch and fast-twitch.
Fast-twitch fibers are tremendously powerful, but fatigue very quickly. Slow twitch muscle fibers havetremendous endurance, but are not very powerful. One major problem with taking long strides is thatthe slow-twitch fibers are not able to provide the majority of the power required for push-off and thefast-twitch fibers are required to contribute significantly. Running with longer strides and slower
turnover requires much more power at push-off than the slow-twitch fibers can produce. This means
the fast-twitch, sprint muscle fibers must contract to make up the difference, which leads to lactic acidaccumulation and premature fatigue.
Running with a slow turnover requires increased vertical displacement, greater contact time with theground, and more forceful contractions at push-off, all of which impair economy and lead to local
muscular fatigue and greater risk of injuries. Improving this aspect of technique pays big dividends.
Our research has shown that, for durations of the range of triathlon race durations, optimal turnover isabout 180 – 182 steps per minute, regardless of running speed. This is considerably higher turnoverthan most runners naturally use, especially on long, slow runs.
Learning to keep turnover higher on your easy runs is a critical part of efficient training. Good cyclists
keep cadence relatively high even on an easy zone 1-2 ride. Keeping turnover high on easy runs is evenmore important because slow turnover training does not effectively train the elastic response that you
need to run your best on race day. If a runner uses slow turnover for basic endurance training, he/she
is asking his/her muscles to create force on race day in a way that has been trained for a small fractionof training mileage. That is not the way to produce optimal results.
Running with quick, short strides is unnatural for all runners, but especially for taller runners, who havebeen told to take advantage of their long legs by using a long strides. To gain the “free speed” ofelastic recoil, tall runners must use the same high turnover as shorter runners. This means they must
learn to use steps which seem proportionally shorter for their leg length. I have had tremendoussuccess teaching tall runners to take quick, short strides and increase their efficiency. My wife, who is
6 feet tall, learned to run with high turnover and as a result won a triathlon national championship,
turning in the fastest run split.
Certain biomechanical techniques are key to increasing turnover to maximize efficiency.
1. Efficient runners have no pause at the completion of the leg’s follow through. The leg pulls
back to provide propulsion and then immediately the knee drives forward. Leg recovery must
be initiated as the leg is still moving backward in follow through from the propulsive phase.
2. During leg recovery, the knee is driven forward powerfully by the hip flexor muscles at the frontof the upper thigh. The forward movement must be quick and powerful, with full knee bend,2Evolution Running
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but the range of motion of leg recovery must be very short. The forward knee drive iscompleted when the knee is only slightly in front of the hip and the foot is directly beneath theknee.
3. The foot lands directly beneath the hips to prevent braking, instead of landing out in front.
4. Contact time between the feet and ground is minimized.
5. Pushoff is not created by forceful contractions, but by light, quick movements. Bodybuilders
don’t win 10Ks or marathons.
6. Extend the knee and foot well behind your hips, but never very far in front. Your feet should
stay under and behind you all the time, even at slow paces.
7. All this is accomplished while maintaining relaxation.
Make sure that you do not attempt to increase turnover by pulling the leg back faster during theweight bearing phase of running. That will increase both turnover and stride length, leading toincorrect training intensity and possibly premature fatigue. That isn’t efficient running; that is going
too hard. Work toward a significantly higher turnover with slightly shorter steps and you will increase
speed without increasing energy expenditure.
Many of the athletes we coach use metronomes during running. A modern metronome is just slightly
larger than a credit card and will beep at any rate you set it for. (Most music stores carry thesedevices) We usually have runners determine their natural turnover and gradually increase it over time,with the ultimate goal being approximately 180 steps per minute. We generally have runners increase
turnover by three to five steps-per-minute each week until approximately 180 steps per minute feels
natural.
Learning to run in a relaxed manner at high turnover with short to moderate stride length takes
concentration, effort and patience, but these techniques will help almost every runner to maximize
efficiency and minimize the risk for injuries. Take the time and effort to evolve your running and you
will run faster with fewer injuries.
© 2005 Ken Mierke,author of The Triathlete’s Guide to Run Training, is a two-time World Champion triathlete (DisabledDivision, 1997,1998) an exercise physiologist, and developer of the techniques of Evolution Running. Two of Ken’s 15 clients
won world championships in 2005 and he has coached 13 National Champions and 28 Team USA athletes. Find more about
Ken at www.Fitness-Concepts.com or www.EvolutionRunning.com

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