Many modern fitness watches and trackers track cadence, but if you don’t have one, is there any way to get an idea of where your cadence is at?

It might sound basic, but you can just count your steps. Simply put a minute timer on your phone, start running and count each step you take in that time. You can do it a few times to get a rough idea of your average cadence.

Alternatively, you can count it at a few different times during a normal-paced 5k run. Your cadence shouldn’t be affected too much by your pace (you can still have a high foot turnover even when you’re running easy) so an easy training run is the perfect time to work on it. Then, when you’re next running fast, you can see if it makes a difference.

What is cadence, and why should runners care about it? A pro-athlete explains