Hello!
You'll find out the answer to your question about cadence. I'd been hearing it for so many years and never knew, until Chris explained it simply in chapter... something.
Re. the book. Your skepticism won't turn me off. I'm a hardcore minimalist. It's almost religion-level for me at this point 😂 So I guess I best be careful not to preach too hard to you 😉 I'm (mostly) joking.
I really appreciate you sharing how it's landing for you. And I'm guessing it must feel really similar for a lot of people who only came across Born to Run (the first) very recently, or even only came across the concept when the 2nd book came out.
I read the first book 12+ years ago within months of it coming out (just because a very forward-thinking ultra marathon buddy of mine put it in front of me and insisted I read it, not because I went looking for it. Heck, I did my first ultra in a pair of tiny-toe-box, motion-controlled, over-price-orthotic filled, heel-drop Asics of some kind - I knew nothing! But I soon rebuilt the strength in my feet and got rid of the orthotics I'd been told I had to have, I've never had plantar fasciitis again and I did my next ultra marathon in Vibram Five Fingers and my feet were waaaaay better after that one than the first one! Anway, back to my point...)
I've had all that time to ponder, experiment, integrate and realise... exactly why Chris is so preachy.
I also get that it's a lot to implement, like years' worth of change. I am already expecting to take the next 1 or even 2 years to slowly and deliberately implement most of the things in that book. And that's after I've already done as much change as I have. It's a lot, a lot.
So, I have a radical suggestion: Why don't you stop reading the book.
Seriously. You already sound overwhelmed by all the stuff in there. You sound skeptical (for good reason) about what they're sharing. Why not just stop?
Let it settle. Do some running. Feel into how pissed off you are that the book is so preachy. Consider which bits make sense to you and which bits annoy the f*ck out of you. Just be with everything it's brought up for you.
It's a book. It's not going anywhere. You can always go back to it in a month or a year or whenever. But no point in forcing yourself to try and take in something that doesn't feel good to you right now.
Just a thought.
And if you have any questions about anything in there that you want to run by me, to get another (less preachy) opinion about, feel free to comment on any of my posts re. this marathon training journey/running sessions. I'm happy to share my experience. And maybe hearing about someone's experience who you actually (sort of) know might make it feel more real or reachable than a bunch of stories in a book.