Running Cadence Calculator

Cadence is how many steps you take per minute. Speed is how fast you cover ground. Put the two together and you get your stride. Enter your cadence and your pace above, and the calculator returns your step length and your stride length in metres.

What the numbers mean

Step length is the distance from one foot strike to the next. Stride length covers a full cycle, so left foot to left foot, which is two steps. The maths is short: divide your speed by your steps per second to get step length, then double it for stride.

A worked example. At 180 steps per minute and 12 km/h, you take three steps per second over 3.33 metres of ground. That works out to a step of 1.11 m and a stride of 2.22 m. Slow down without changing cadence and your stride shrinks. Speed up and it grows.

How to read your cadence

You will hear 170 to 180 steps per minute thrown around as the ideal. It holds for a lot of runners, but read it as a guideline and not a rule. Taller runners tend to sit lower. Faster paces pull the number up. Your own efficient cadence is the one that lets you run relaxed at your target pace.

If your cadence is well under 160, you are likely reaching out in front and spending longer on each foot. Nudging it up by a few steps per minute, while holding the same pace, shortens your stride and can take load off the knee. Make that change slowly across weeks.

Use it with your pacing

Cadence works alongside the rest of your run metrics. Set a goal pace with the running pace calculator, check the training paces your fitness supports with VDOT, then watch how your cadence holds up across each one. A Garmin watch or Apple Health will log your cadence on every run, so you can compare what you planned here against what you ran.

For the why behind the number, and the drills that shift it, read Running Cadence and Form.