Walking and running pace
Tune your stride length and cadence to find a pace that feels steady and repeatable. No tracker, no login, no guesswork. Just the numbers behind your next walk or run.
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Enter your current numbers, then nudge stride or cadence to see how pace responds. Changes update instantly.
No saved setup yet. Click "Save setup" to track changes against a baseline.
These inputs look like a relaxed walk. Cadence is comfortable and stride is moderate.
Pick a direction to see how small adjustments change pace. Numbers use your current stride and cadence as the starting point.
| Adjustment | New pace | Speed | Change | Note |
|---|
Each row keeps the other input constant. Real life is messier. Use these as a planning reference, not a promise.
Pace is the product of two choices: how far each step carries you, and how often those steps land. Most beginners change the wrong one, or change too much at once.
Raising cadence by 4 to 8 steps per minute is usually easier on the body than lengthening stride by the same amount. Higher cadence tends to reduce pounding on the knees and hips, and it keeps your feet under your center of mass instead of out in front.
Try this: leave stride alone for one week. Add 4 steps per minute to your usual cadence and see how pace changes before you touch stride length.
If each foot lands well ahead of your knee, you are probably braking a little on every step. That slows you down while making each step harder work. Shorten the stride slightly and let cadence carry the pace instead.
Ask a friend to film you from the side at a relaxed pace. If your front foot is far ahead of your body at ground contact, shorten stride until it lands closer to your center.
A 5% change in stride or cadence is enough to feel different. A 15% change usually feels forced and falls apart after a few minutes. Use the tuner to see how small moves stack up, then pick the smallest one that gets you where you want to go.
On uphills, stride shortens naturally and cadence often holds steady. On downhills, stride lengthens and cadence may drop. The flat-ground pace shown here is a reference, not a hill number. Expect pace to shift 15 to 40 seconds per mile on moderate grades.
Treadmills remove wind resistance and give you a moving belt under your feet. Most people run slightly quicker on a treadmill at the same effort. Set 1% incline if you want a closer match to flat outdoor effort. Cadence usually stays similar, but stride tends to shorten slightly indoors.
If your pace feels heavy or uneven, check three things first. Are you overstriding? Did cadence drop without you noticing? Did you recently add distance or hills without adjusting expectations? Fix one variable at a time instead of changing everything in the same session.
Plain definitions for the terms used on this page.