Chime IN On Cadence
Seems like I have this conversation every once in a while with someone....
Also saw a bit of this in another forum somewhere here in the haus..
Decided to experiment a bit during the 3x12' intervals today with cadence. Rode first one in big ring with smooth cadence of 84-86 and was able to really control HR and evenly increase AVG WATTS until I was north of FTP and kept rising until end. Basically means a negative split and started out just 4 watts under FTP.
Rode 2nd interval in small ring at higher cadence of 90-94 and found it much harder to control what was going on. Harder to "ride" into the interval and ended up right on FTP instead of being able to surpass it. Given could be fatiqued from previous interval, but higher cadence felt a bit frentic!
Rode 3rd interval back in big ring and moved gears around a bit to be a cadence of 82 or all the way up to 88. Was able to "ride" into interval and ended up at average at 102%.
What works/doesn't work for you all?? I have read several places to just ride where it is comfortable and everyone has a natural physilogical cadence. Seen pros riding at 100+ and at 70.
What thinks you all??
Comments
I was totally thinking about this during my intervals this morning. I try to hold the higher cadence as long as I can, but when power starts to slip, I've gotta kick the cadence down in a lower gear to keep the power up.
Mike
Here's Chrissy on cadence, FWIW. She's mostly talking about racing, but the bigger gear 90% of the time works better for me when I'm trying to make power. Smaller gear = hamster on wheel dying because she can't get enough air.
On the trainer, I've found that 88-90 rpms is where I can generate the watts I need to and feel "comfortable". Anything higher and I can't hold the watts. Anything lower and my legs feel heavy for the last interval.
Outdoors, it seems like my avg rpms is higher (92-96) for the same watts and comfort level.
I find that in my higher cadence today around 96-97 my HR seems to be slightly elevated or rises a little faster initially anyway. Of course the lower cadence it feels easier to hold the watts on target initially but as I get tired there can be some drift here if I don't pay attention.
One other thing I found that when I did spin ups more it was much easier to be smoother at the high cadence. If you spin up to 110-120 then 100 does not seem so bad and you definitely learn how to avoid the bouncing.
Of course all of this was in another life time I just do the EN work now and cadence is a side discussion.
Gordon