All of us race, participate, or train for different reasons.  After several years of racing, my wife Jill as a spectator/supporter and me as a delusional age grouper, we have made some interesting observations.  We thought that it might just be helpful to share these, in the context of our recent experience in my first half ironman.  Just to give folks something to chew on and maybe even remember at their next race.

In the January 26-27 Wall Street Journal, Bill Gates wrote an article titled, "My Plan To Fix The World’s Biggest Problems – Measure Them!"  The take home message was:  without feedback from precise measurements, any progress is destined to be “rare and erratic.”  Gates writes, “You can achieve incredible progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal.”  

When I began running longer distances, I learned that elite distance runners had a cadence of 90-95 foot-strikes/minute.  Since I came from a sprinting background, leg turnover wasn't an issue, but it was a challenge for me to keep my cadence at ~90 for longer runs.  It took practice, but I after a while, I was able to adapt ~90 strides per minute as a comfortable, relaxing running cadence.  But, at certain times of the year, I tried to bump that number up a little bit.