: How can I adjust my cadence? To increase my cadence, I flex my hamstrings downward so as to prevent my feet from rising too much. Less vertical motion increases cadence, but my hamstring muscles sure feel funky when I do

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This worked for me and so here it is.

Focus on keeping your feet beneath your hips. Or, to push your hips over your feet, whatever visualization works best for you. You should almost feel like your hips are leading the run, not your feet. THIS really helps in shortening your stride.

Optional but very helpful: wear minimal footwear or no footwear at all (warning: this must be done gradually if you're not used to it already. I mean very gradually). This helps in adopting a more natural stance, that is landing with your forefoot or midfoot. This is by the way not enough though and if you go bare or semi-barefoot by keeping a long stride you're going to get stress fractures. So, minimal footwear/barefooting helps a lotbecause of the much more natural feedback you get without those orthotics that are running shoes, but it is not the solution alone.

An higher cadence is just the consequence of a correct posture and form. That is, if you do short and proper strides, the only way to go as fast as you did when you made longer strides is by making more steps in the same amount of time then. Quite obvious. BUT, higher cadence, as above and again, will be simply the consequence of that. Don't focus in the higher cadence itself as the primary objective, but rather on the quality of your movement and your running will be more effective and healthy; and cadence will automatically increase as the natural consequence. If you focus on the cadence alone you may end up achieving it without a proper form. Again, cadence is the consequence of the glider style not the objective.

Source: own experience with barefooting/natural running by studying, trying, and erring.

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I can sympathize with your desire to increase your running cadence. Several years ago I learned that most top mid/long distance runners have a cadence around 180 steps per minute (SPM). While the reason for this rate is outside the scope of this question, I will say that running economy is optimized for most trained runners at around 180 SPM.

I read this piece of trivia on a Sunday evening after I participated in a 5k race. I knew that my cadence was well below the 180 SPM rate. So, the next day (Monday), I ran another 5k and forced myself to run at 180 SPM. Surprisingly, I improved my 5k PR by 1 minute without any extra effort.

I now run at approx. 180 SPM without thinking about it, but for the first few months, it required conscious effort to maintain that rate.

Here are a few of the things that I did:

I shortened my stride.
I became a mid-foot striker instead of a heel striker. This became more natural for me when I shortened my stride.
I used the "second" counter on my watch to help me: At "00" I start counting every 3rd foot strike. After I reach a count of 30, I look down at my watch, which should also say "30". This is how I know that I am running at the desired 180 SPM.
I did other activities at my desired run cadence: Swimming "streamline kicking" on my back at the desired rate to strengthen hip muscles. Cycling at 90 petal strokes per minute. Both of these activities help reinforce the neuro-muscular pathways that activate the leg muscles. Eventually the repetition causes the neuro-muscular pathways to become ingrained so that you run at a high cadence naturally. When this adaptation occurs, your running economy will benefit.
Don't worry about running at 180 SPM if you are just jogging slowly. It will only go up to 180 SMP if I'm high Zone 2 or higher.