Step Tracking for Marathoners: Go Geek, or Go Home

Step tracking sounds geeky, but it can make you a faster marathoner. This is true no matter whether you are a runner, a walker, or a run:walk marathoner.

First, I’ll explain why you as a marathoner should use step tracking. Second, I’ll tell you why you should embrace the “Go Geek, or Go Home” philosophy. Third, I’ll show you how to track your running or walking steps like a geek. Fourth, I’ll cover what run:walk marathoners should do about step tracking. Fifth, I’ll close with three reasons to continue with step tracking.

Step tracking? Why should I track my steps?

Suppose that you know how many steps per minute you take on a run or walk. Then you can use my concept of paced running to set a step beeper to guide your cadence. It’s as easy as 1-2-3-4.

You run or walk in a given duration to meet some criterion, such as avoiding going anaerobic.
You track your steps in that duration to estimate your average steps per minute (cadence).
You use that estimate to set your step beeper’s beats per minute (tempo).
You use your step beeper’s tempo to guide your cadence in future runs or walks.

Someone who runs or walks all the time would use one step beeper. Run:walk athletes could use two step beepers – one to guide running, and one to guide walking.

Why you should embrace the “Go Geek, or Go Home” philosopy

Some say that the exhortation “Go big, or go home!” may have started among mogul skiers in the 1980s. They were challenging each other to ever-more-spectacular skiing runs. Today, though, athletes in many sports have latched onto this American idiom. It exhorts an athlete to give full effort to his or her sport.

“Go geek, or go home!” is my way of saying that marathoners should become geeks when it comes to step tracking on runs and walks. What do I mean by this? Look up “geek” and “nerd” today, and you may find identical definitions. But, I like this distinction:

A nerd today focuses on the macro, such as the future of humanity.
A geek today focuses on the micro, such as life’s little details.

If you are a marathoner, then you likely spend a lot of time preparing for a marathon. Suppose that …

Your training season lasts for six months.
You weekly have three weekday sessions (tempo runs, etc.), lasting 30-45 minutes each.
You weekly have one weekend session of 3 to 21 miles or so.

Then here’s my advice:
[Tweet “You can spend hundreds of hours training for a marathon. Go geek, or go home!”]
That is, you should take a few minutes after each run or walk to record distance, duration, and number of steps. This geeky step-tracking takes little extra effort but can have a big pay-off in your marathon.

How should I track my running or walking steps like a geek?

Tracking your steps like a geek means tracking them across repeated runs or walks. With this philosophy …
[Tweet “You can use the scientific method to identify what cadence makes you the fastest.”]
I earlier endorsed the scientific method to help run:walk marathoners to get faster. Marathoners who always run or always walk can use the scientific method to get faster, too. Tracking your steps like a geek lets you use the scientific method to run or walk faster marathons.

Here’s how you can use the scientific method to “Go Geek” with your step tracking. To simplify this discussion, assume that you measure distance in miles. And, assume that you always run throughout workouts and races. The approach is the same for someone who walks all the time.

Ask a question. “What cadence should I use to run faster marathons?”
Do background research. Complete three training runs. Hold the distance constant across the three runs. Vary your speed while trying to stay aerobic across the three runs. Count your steps in each run. You can do this with a pedometer. Or, you can do this with a GPS watch that counts steps. I don’t recommend using Google Fit on a cellphone, as I found that it can be quite inaccurate. Record for each run its duration and the number of steps taken. Compute average cadence (steps/minute) and average pace (minutes/mile) for each run.
Construct a hypothesis. “If X, then Y.” is the simplest way to describe how a hypothesis looks. To construct your hypothesis, start with your background research. For example, suppose that you get these average steps per minute (“s.p.m.”) and average paces from three runs:
a. 157 s.p.m. yields 11:05/mile;
b. 165 s.p.m. yields 10:37/mile;
c. 172 s.p.m. yields 10:49/mile.
Then it seems that increasing cadence from 165 to 172 s.p.m. can slow you down. But, we don’t know whether there is a cadence between 165 and 172 s.p.m. that could make you even faster. This points us to a hypothesis: “If I change my cadence from 165 to 168 s.p.m., then my pace will be faster.”
Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment. An experiment requires two values – a baseline value, and a post-change value. A baseline value in our hypothesis is the pace achieved at 165 s.p.m. A post-change value in our hypothesis is the pace achieved at 168 s.p.m. The more runs that you can complete at each cadence, the more confident you can be in your conclusion. But, this is only one of many possible cadence/pace hypotheses that you may want to test. And, life is short. So, complete, say, five runs at each cadence. Record the average pace from each run. This will give you five average paces at 165 s.p.m. and five average paces at 168 s.p.m.
Analyze your data and draw a conclusion.
- If all average paces at 168 s.p.m. are faster than those at 165 s.p.m., then 168 s.p.m. is your new baseline.
- If all average paces at 168 s.p.m. are slower than those at 165 s.p.m., then 168 s.p.m. slows you down. And, you should start over with a new hypothesis, keeping 165 s.p.m. as your baseline.
- If you got mixed results between 165 and 168 s.p.m., then you may want to complete more runs at each cadence. Or, you may want to test 166 or 167 s.p.m. against the baseline of 165 s.p.m.
Communicate your results. You are not writing a scientific paper. But, you must communicate your results … to yourself! This lets you put your conclusion (if you have one) into practice. For example, suppose that you concluded that 168 s.p.m. gives you a faster average pace than 165 s.p.m. can give you. Then you should set your step beeper to 168 beats per minute to drive your cadence on future runs.

What if I am a run:walk marathoner?

I have yet to see a device that tracks running steps and walking steps in a single run:walk workout.

Instead, if you are a run:walk marathoner, you can do this:

Apply the scientific method to several runs.
Apply the scientific method to several walks.
Use the conclusions from steps 1 and 2 to drive your run:walk workouts and races.

Instead of using two step beepers to drive running and walking cadences, you could use a run:walk MP3 file.

Closing advice

Here are reasons to continue with step tracking after you find what seems to be your optimal cadence.

Your optimal cadence for one distance may not be optimal for another distance. For example, your 5K optimal-cadence could differ from your marathon optimal-cadence. Plus, you may not run many marathons per year, so step totals from marathons may be rare and thus precious.
Your optimal cadence can change as you age. For example, your optimal cadence at 30 could differ from your optimal cadence at 40.
Your optimal cadence can change with more training. I found this to be true across eight sequential Saturday-morning walks. My pace improved from 15:01/mile to 13:00/mile across the eight walks. Granted, the distances varied across the eight walks, so this wasn’t very scientific. But, as I worked on my walking pace, I found that I had to up my step beeper from 126 b.p.m. to 144 b.p.m.

By tracking steps in every run or walk, you have more background research. This lets you form and test new hypotheses about your optimal cadence. This optimal cadence will be different for running than for walking. And, it likely will be different across different distances.

In contrast, don’t expect step tallies from run:walk outings to help you much. Yes, it’s a good habit to track steps in every outing. If you track them on your run:walk outings, then it will be natural to track them on runs and walks, too. But, your run:walk step totals are more of a curiosity. Run:walk step totals conflate steps run with steps walked. Don’t try to use these totals for background research for a running cadence or a walking cadence.
[Tweet “Run:walk athletes can optimize running cadence by tracking steps when they only run.”]
[Tweet “Run:walk athletes can optimize walking cadence by tracking steps when they only walk.”]
If you have done both, then you will have your optimal running and walking paces as a run:walk marathoner. But, you may wonder how to convert these two paces into a chip-time estimate for a race.

My book Run:Walk Pace Tables in Minutes/Mile makes it easy for run:walk athletes to get chip-time estimates. It covers several running paces and several walking paces. And, most important, it does this across several run:walk ratios and race distances.

Interested? Click here:

Image Credit: Pixabay