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Running Watch Metrics Explained: What All Those Running Numbers Actually Mean
- 1 day ago
- 12 min read
Running watches can now tell you considerably more than how far you have run and how quickly you covered the distance. Look through the data after a run and you may find cadence, stride length, ground contact time, training load, vertical oscillation and vertical ratio alongside the more familiar pace and heart rate information.
Understanding what all those numbers mean can be difficult, which is why our running watch metrics explained guide looks at the measurements appearing on modern running watches and apps. Many of these measurements are collectively known as running dynamics because they attempt to provide information about how you are moving rather than simply how fast you are running.
The difficult part is knowing what to do with all that information. A lower ground contact time is not automatically something you should try to achieve, 180 steps per minute is not a magic cadence and deliberately changing your stride because an app displays a particular number could interfere with a perfectly natural running style. Running metrics can be useful, but the numbers need context. This guide explains what the most common measurements mean, what can influence them and whether recreational runners actually need to worry about them.
Running Watch Metrics Explained
Modern running watches can provide measurements designed to describe different aspects of the way your body moves while running. Different watches and running apps use slightly different terminology and provide different measurements, but several metrics have become increasingly common.
Measurements relating specifically to the way you move are often grouped together under the term running dynamics, while some devices and additional sensors can provide further information including ground contact time balance and other measurements relating to running form.
The technology used to produce these measurements also varies. Some modern watches can estimate several metrics directly from sensors on the wrist, while other measurements or devices may require an additional chest strap, foot pod or running sensor.
That means you should not assume every watch calculates every metric in exactly the same way. Running watch metrics are generally most useful when you understand what your particular device is measuring and follow your own trends consistently.
Running Cadence Explained
Cadence is the number of steps you take each minute while running. If your watch displays a cadence of 170 steps per minute, for example, you are taking approximately 170 total steps with your left and right feet combined every minute.
Cadence tends to change with running speed. When you accelerate, you can increase speed by taking more steps, making each step longer or through a combination of the two. Your height, leg length, running experience, terrain and individual running style can also influence your natural cadence.
You may have heard that every runner should aim for 180 steps per minute. This has become one of the most persistent ideas in recreational running, but there is no universal ideal cadence that everybody should attempt to achieve.
A taller runner may naturally use a lower cadence and longer stride than a shorter runner running at exactly the same pace. Cadence can also be very different during an easy recovery run compared with a 5K race, which is why looking at the number without considering pace can be misleading.
That does not make cadence useless. A sudden or gradual change at a similar pace can provide information about how your running is changing, and some runners who substantially overstride may benefit from carefully adjusting their step rate. What you should avoid is seeing somebody else's cadence and deciding that your own running technique must be wrong.
Stride Length Explained
Stride length describes the distance covered as you move through your running stride. Together with cadence, it is one of the fundamental factors determining running speed, although the precise way stride length is defined and calculated can vary between devices.
As you run faster, stride length will usually increase. This is why comparing your stride length from a slow recovery run with the figure from a fast interval session tells you relatively little unless you also consider the difference in pace.
Stride length is influenced by factors including height, leg length, mobility, strength, speed and running technique. There is therefore no single ideal stride length that runners should try to reproduce.
One mistake is deliberately reaching further forward with the foot because you believe a longer stride must make you faster. This can create overstriding, where the foot lands too far ahead of the body and may produce a braking effect.
Faster runners often have longer strides, but that does not mean simply forcing your leg further forward will make you a faster runner. Improvements in fitness, strength and running speed can naturally change stride length without consciously trying to manufacture a particular number.
Ground Contact Time Explained
Ground contact time measures how long your foot remains in contact with the ground during each step. It is normally displayed in milliseconds, so a ground contact time of 250 milliseconds means the foot is on the ground for approximately a quarter of a second during that contact.
Ground contact time generally becomes shorter as running speed increases. A runner completing fast intervals would therefore normally expect a different figure from the one recorded during a slow recovery run.
Experienced and faster runners often display shorter ground contact times, but that does not mean every runner should deliberately try to minimise the number. Running technique, speed, gradient, fatigue, footwear and the surface underneath you can all affect how long your foot remains on the ground.
This makes context particularly important. Comparing ground contact time between two runs at completely different speeds may tell you very little, whereas observing what happens during similar sessions over several months can be more informative.
Ground Contact Time Balance
Some watches and external running sensors can go a stage further and measure the balance between the amount of time your left and right feet spend on the ground. A perfectly even result would be displayed as approximately 50% on each side, but runners should not become concerned every time the figure moves slightly away from an exact 50:50 split.
Real-world running is rarely perfectly symmetrical. Road camber, corners, hills, fatigue and natural differences between the two sides of the body can all influence the measurement, so small variations during individual runs need to be interpreted carefully.
A persistent or increasing imbalance across comparable runs may be more interesting, particularly if it appears alongside discomfort or a noticeable change in running form.
Running watch metrics cannot diagnose an injury, however, so the number itself should not be used to decide that something is medically wrong.
Vertical Oscillation Explained
Vertical oscillation describes how much your body moves upwards and downwards as you run. It is normally measured in centimetres and is sometimes described more simply as the amount of bounce in your running movement.
Running obviously requires some vertical movement. The objective is not to travel completely horizontally across the ground, and trying to consciously eliminate every centimetre of upward movement would create an unnatural running style.
The reason vertical oscillation receives attention is that movement upwards does not directly move you towards the finish line. In theory, a runner who directs a greater proportion of movement forwards rather than vertically may use energy more effectively, but that does not mean the runner with the lowest vertical oscillation is automatically the most efficient.
Vertical oscillation is influenced by running speed, stride length, body dimensions and individual technique, so simply trying to force the number down is unlikely to be a sensible approach. Watching how your own vertical oscillation changes during comparable sessions can provide much more useful information.
Vertical Ratio Explained
Vertical ratio attempts to put vertical oscillation into better context by considering it alongside stride length. It is normally expressed as a percentage, providing an indication of the relationship between vertical movement and the amount of distance covered with each stride.
A runner who moves a relatively small amount vertically while covering a greater distance with each stride will generally have a lower vertical ratio. This is why a lower figure is sometimes associated with more efficient forward movement.
The advantage of vertical ratio over looking at vertical oscillation alone is that it considers how much forward distance is being achieved for the amount of vertical movement. Even then, it should not become a number you obsessively attempt to reduce.
Changes in pace affect stride length and running mechanics, while individual differences still matter. Following the trend during comparable runs is more useful than treating a particular percentage as a universal target.
Training Load Explained
Training load is an estimate of the amount of physiological stress your recent training has placed on your body. Rather than simply counting how many miles or minutes you have completed, watches and running apps can use factors such as workout duration and intensity, often incorporating heart rate and other data, to estimate how demanding your training has been.
Depending on the watch or app you use, training load may be shown for an individual workout as well as accumulated across several days or weeks. Some systems also place your current load into ranges or use it alongside information about fitness, recovery and previous training to indicate whether your recent workload is relatively low, appropriate or high.
For runners, the trend is generally more useful than obsessing over an individual score. A steadily increasing training load can be a normal part of preparing for a marathon or half marathon, while a sudden increase may simply show that you have completed a particularly demanding period of training. Equally, seeing your load fall during a recovery week or taper is not necessarily evidence that you are losing fitness.
Training load should still be treated as an estimate rather than an instruction. Different watches and apps calculate it in different ways, and the number cannot fully account for factors such as poor sleep, illness, work stress or how your legs actually feel. Used alongside your training plan and your own perception of fatigue and recovery, however, it can provide a useful additional view of how much training stress you are accumulating.
How Do Running Watches Measure These Metrics?
Modern running watches contain accelerometers and other motion sensors capable of detecting movement while you run. Software then uses information collected by these sensors and algorithms developed for the device to estimate different aspects of your running movement.
Some watches can calculate several running metrics directly from the wrist. Other devices can provide additional measurements when paired with external sensors worn on the chest, waist or foot.
The position from which movement is being measured can matter. A sensor attached to the torso is observing different movement from a watch attached to an arm that is swinging throughout the running cycle, while a foot pod is collecting information much closer to the point of ground contact.
Different devices can also use different algorithms to calculate what appears to be the same measurement. This is another reason not to compare running metrics from completely different systems too literally, particularly if you change watches and suddenly notice that some of your usual numbers have moved.
How Running Apps Display Your Running Watch Metrics
Once your run has synchronised, the companion app connected to your watch may provide considerably more detail than you could see while running. Exactly what is displayed depends on the device and app, but running metrics are commonly presented as an average for the whole activity alongside graphs showing how the measurement changed throughout the run.
Cadence is normally shown in steps per minute, ground contact time in milliseconds and vertical oscillation in centimetres. Vertical ratio is usually displayed as a percentage, while stride length is normally shown as a distance. Some apps also use graphs, ranges or colour coding to help put individual measurements into context.
The graphs can often be more useful than the overall average. If your ground contact time increased substantially towards the end of a long run, for example, looking at the graph alongside pace may help you understand whether the change coincided with slowing down or increasing fatigue. An average for the entire run could hide that change completely.
The same principle applies to cadence and stride length. Rather than looking at a single number and deciding whether it is good or bad, examine how it changed as your pace, terrain and fatigue changed during the session. Running apps make large amounts of data available, but the most useful information often comes from understanding the relationship between several measurements rather than concentrating on one in isolation.
Do Running Watch Metrics Tell You If You Have Good Running Form?
Running watch metrics can describe aspects of your movement, but they cannot reduce good running form to five numbers on a screen. Faster and more experienced runners may display characteristics such as higher cadence, shorter ground contact times or lower vertical ratios, but that does not prove that deliberately copying those numbers will make another runner faster or more efficient.
There is considerable variation between runners. Height, body proportions, strength, speed, mobility and years of training can all contribute to the running style that develops naturally, while the same runner's dynamics can change significantly when running at different speeds.
These measurements should therefore be viewed as information rather than a running technique scorecard. They can help identify changes and provide additional context, but they should not encourage runners to continually interfere with their natural stride in pursuit of supposedly perfect numbers.
Do Running Metrics Change When You Get Tired?
Running metrics can change as fatigue develops during a long run or race. Cadence, stride length, ground contact time and vertical movement may all alter as muscles become tired and maintaining the same pace becomes more difficult.
Looking at what happened during the final stages of a long run can therefore provide more useful information than simply examining the average figure for the entire session. You may discover that stride length shortened, ground contact time increased or other aspects of your movement changed as fatigue developed.
That does not automatically identify a problem because slowing down will itself change several running metrics. Pace always needs to be considered alongside the measurements before deciding that a change is the result of fatigue or deteriorating running form.
Over time, being able to maintain similar mechanics for longer at a comparable pace may provide another indication that your running fitness and durability are improving. This is where the graphs provided by running apps can become particularly useful.
Should Beginners Worry About Running Watch Metrics?
For most beginners, advanced running watch metrics should be well down the list of priorities. Developing a consistent running habit, gradually increasing training, learning to control effort and remaining healthy are considerably more important than whether your vertical oscillation is 8cm or 9cm.
The danger of receiving sophisticated data immediately is that it can make running appear more complicated than it needs to be. A new runner can easily assume that every number displayed by an expensive watch represents something that needs fixing, when many of those measurements may simply be describing their natural running movement.
If you are beginning to run, pace, distance, time and perhaps heart rate already provide plenty of information. Advanced metrics can become interesting later as you learn more about your own running, but you do not need to optimise every measurement before you can improve.
How To Use Running Watch Metrics Properly
The most useful comparison is usually with yourself. Rather than asking whether your cadence or vertical ratio is good compared with another runner, examine what happens to your own measurements during similar types of training.
Pace matters enormously. If you compare a 30 minute recovery run with a 5K race, differences in cadence, stride length and ground contact time are inevitable and do not necessarily indicate that your running form has improved or deteriorated.
Terrain also matters because hills, trails and uneven surfaces can change your stride considerably, while fatigue, weather conditions and footwear may also influence the way you move. Comparing sessions completed in very different circumstances can therefore produce numbers that look significant without actually telling you very much.
Running metrics become more useful when you compare similar sessions under reasonably similar conditions. Over several months, those trends can add another layer of information to the more familiar changes in pace, heart rate and training volume.
Can Running Watch Metrics Help Prevent Injuries?
Running technique can influence the forces placed on the body, and changing cadence or other aspects of running form can alter biomechanics. That does not mean a running watch can look at your metrics and reliably predict whether you are going to become injured.
Running injuries are influenced by numerous factors including training load, previous injury, strength, recovery, sleep, terrain and individual biomechanics. Reducing injury risk cannot therefore be reduced to achieving a particular cadence, vertical ratio or ground contact time.
Running metrics may highlight a change that encourages you to look more closely at what is happening, particularly if it coincides with discomfort or an unexplained deterioration in running. They should not be treated as a diagnostic tool or as evidence on their own that an injury is developing.
If you are repeatedly injured or believe your running technique may be contributing to a problem, professional assessment is considerably more useful than trying to redesign your stride around numbers from a watch.
Do You Need Advanced Running Watch Metrics?
You can become a considerably better runner without ever knowing your vertical oscillation or ground contact time. For many recreational runners, GPS distance, pace and heart rate provide more than enough information to support effective training.
Advanced running watch metrics are additional information rather than essential measurements. They become more interesting for runners who enjoy analysing training, want to understand changes in their running mechanics or are working with a coach who knows how to interpret the information.
The increasing availability of these measurements on mainstream running watches means you may receive them whether you actively want them or not. There is nothing wrong with looking at them, provided you understand their limitations and resist the temptation to treat every number as something that needs improving.
Are Running Watch Metrics Actually Useful?
Running watch metrics can provide a fascinating additional view of your running. Cadence, stride length, ground contact time, vertical oscillation and vertical ratio describe different elements of how you move and can reveal changes that pace and distance alone cannot show.
Their usefulness comes from context rather than individual numbers. Pace, terrain, fatigue, anatomy and the way the measurement is collected can all influence the result, which makes universal targets potentially misleading.
For most runners, the best approach is to establish what is normal for you and watch how those measurements develop alongside your training. If your running becomes faster and more comfortable while the numbers change naturally, that is considerably more meaningful than forcing your technique to achieve a value suggested by an app.
Our running watch metrics explained guide shows that cadence, stride length, ground contact time, vertical oscillation, vertical ratio and the other sophisticated measurements appearing on modern running watches can be useful, but they should help you understand your running rather than dictate how you run.
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