The free running cadence & stride length calculator: solve cadence, stride and pace from any two, get height-based cadence & stride targets, check your overstriding risk, train with a running metronome, and estimate ground contact time — all in one lab, 100% in your browser.
Running speed is locked to one equation: speed = cadence × stride length ÷ 60. Fill in any two of pace, cadence, or stride length and the lab solves the third — plus steps per km/mile.
Taller runners naturally take slightly longer strides at a similar cadence. Enter your height and a training pace — the lab computes estimated stride-length targets and the cadence each implies. Estimates, not prescriptions.
Overstriding = landing with your foot well ahead of your center of mass, which increases braking forces. From your height, pace and measured cadence the lab estimates your stride length and compares it to a neutral, height-based stride.
Train a quicker turnover with an audio click at your target cadence. Generated live with WebAudio — no audio files, works offline, stays in your browser.
Set a target and press Start. Tip: raise your current cadence by ~5% at a time, not straight to 180.
Ground contact time (GCT) = how long each foot spends on the ground per step. Faster, higher-cadence running means shorter contact. Estimate yours from cadence.
Vertical oscillation (VO) is how much your body bounces up and down with each step, typically 6–13 cm for road running. Lower oscillation is usually (not always) more economical — but some bounce is necessary; trying to eliminate it entirely creates new problems.
Every module in this lab is built on one biomechanical identity:
speed (m/s) = cadence (steps/min) × stride length (m) ÷ 60
Speed is simply how many steps you take per second multiplied by how far each step carries you. Double your cadence at the same stride and you double your speed; lengthen your stride at the same cadence and the same thing happens. In practice, trained runners raise both as they speed up — cadence rises steeply from jogging to tempo pace, then stride length takes over at sprint speeds.
The "180 spm" figure comes from coach Jack Daniels, who counted the cadences of elite runners at the 1984 Olympics and found nearly all exceeded 180 steps per minute at race pace. It was an observation, not a prescription. Slower paces naturally produce lower cadences — a recreational runner at 6:00/km may sit at 165–170 spm with perfectly sound form. Treat 170–185 as a healthy range to explore for easy running, not a law.
Read any pace row against a stride-length column to see the cadence the equation demands:
| Pace /km | 0.90 m | 1.00 m | 1.10 m | 1.20 m | 1.30 m |
|---|
Generated live from the same equation above. Sprinters exceed these stride lengths; this table covers distance-running ranges.
The lab's height targets use two coaching rules of thumb: easy stride ≈ 0.65 × height and faster stride ≈ 0.70 × height, curated from running-biomechanics coaching literature. They are labelled estimates because leg length (not total height) is the truer driver, and flexibility, terrain and fatigue all shift real strides. Use them as a sanity check — e.g. a 175 cm runner's easy stride near 1.14 m — not as a target to force.
Overstriding means the foot lands well ahead of the body's center of mass, creating a braking impulse each step. The estimator compares your actual stride (derived from your pace and cadence) against the neutral height-based stride: a ratio above ~1.10 at easy effort is a genuine flag worth investigating. Classic fixes are cue-based, not force-based: slightly quicker turnover, "run quietly", and landing with the foot closer under the hips. None of this is medical advice.
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