Cadence and how to fix
I've gone back and read some of the threads on cadence. Most were talking about the offseason on a trainer etc.
I've looked at my last 6 months worth of outside rides and all of the 2-4 hour ones I seem to be averaging 68-74. From what I read, I should be at 85-90. So, my questions are:
1. Would mashing the pedals at 70 manifest itself in my legs being more tired at the end of my ride. i.e. the last 30 min where my legs want to explode.
2. What to do about it? Should I just go out and focus on my cadence for a week or two and assume the watts will follow. Are their drills that I can do to help it come more naturally? I've really only been riding for a year and a half, so i've never really paid attention to cadence. At IMCDA last year I realized that I did 75. I always seem to slip back into that 70ish range.
3. How important is cadence? Some people seem to think a lot, others not quite as much.
4. How does cadence change with hills? Should you keep the same/similar cadence up hills also?
Thanks!
Peter
Comments
Pete - as a general rule, there's a direct correlation between your cadence and your gearing, all other factors being equal. If you are going along on the flats pedaling @ 75 rpm, and then move into an easier gear keeping the same effort (HR or watts), your cadence will go up. So the easiest way to increase your cadence is move to an easier gear! Of course, on hills, you evenutally run out of gears, so you have to accept whatever cadence allows you to maintain the power you want, or else fall over or walk. (And maybe go buy a new cassette - more teeth - and/or chain ring - fewer teeth - which will give you an easier low end gear.)
Now, the underlying question is: is there a right or best rpm to aim for? I'd say there's an optimum range, which varies for each person depending an their anatomy, experience, strength. To use Coach Rich's weight lifiting analogy, if you keep wattage constant, and pedal @ 70 rpm compared to 90 rpm, each pedal stroke at 70 will require more strength than @ 90 rpm. So it's quite probable you will run out of steam sooner pedaling @ 70 rpm for the same watts as at 90 rpm. The maximum rpm is usually limited by one's ability to keep a steady effort on the pedals. Spin too fast, and there will be more of the pedal stroke when you aren't applying enough pressure to actually be moving the bike foreward, so you end up wasting some of your effort the same as if you waved your arms in the air while swimming instead of pushing against the water. The range that most people fall into is about 80-100, but you'll see some super humans outside that range, like a pro time trialist going along a 110 rpm, or some big strong bike oriented triahtletes, going at 65-75 rpm.
I hope this helps to give you a context to think about how you want to work on your cadence.
Peter,
It's generally better to cycle at a higher cadence vs lower, especially as a triathlete. Lower cadence = more torque applied, higher force = more fast twitched fibers used = more glycogen burned. Also, my N = many observation is that people report they run better off the bike after having ridden at a higher cadence.
As you have a PM, best to configure it so that it doesn't count zero's in your average cadence. For example, if you're doing a ride with a lot of hills and coasting on the downhills, all of those zeroes will add up to artificially deflate your average cadence. It's better to just ride at your naturally selected cadence and see what that is.
Next, watch how your power numbers change as cadence changes. Athletes without power often mistake lower cadence with higher power at the rear wheel. It feels hard, feels like you're doing more work so it must be more work. But if you watch the power numbers you'll often find that you can produce more watts more comfortably at higher cadences vs low. When you then add position on the bike -- hoods, aerobars, on the nose/rear of the saddle -- to this cadence + watts equation you can make a lot of interesting observations.
This week I switched from the road bike to the tri bike after 3yrs on the road bike. My quads are not diggin' the change in my position relative the bottom bracket -- I've gone from a slack road bike position to a very steep tri bike/aero position. So this morning I put cadence on my display for the first time in about 4yrs and observed the above. I found that my self-selected cadence was about 85rpm. But I also found that if I increase my cadence to 100-105rpm, I can put out more watts much more comfortably. IOW, at 85rpm I'm trying to hit my road bike numbers and my RPE and quads are all over the place. Body is saying WTF, get in the hoods! But if I downshift a couple gears and get over 100rpm, RPE and watts become more in line and quads feel much better. Then if I go over about 108-110rpm, I can feel all kinds of confusion going on with my legs -- they are not at all used to spinning that fast AND putting power to the pedals. My RPE takes a big jump upwards as I ask my legs to do something they've never seen.
This is what I'm going to do:
Higher cadence almost always means more efficiently earned watts. Those last 30 minutes where the legs are shattered is akin to the last couple of reps on the bench that just won't go up. If you've spun your way to watts earlier versus mashing your way, I say you probably have a bit more in the legs later. But there is certainly a sweet spot for everyone. As a big masher I always thought mine was around 80ish but its now 90ish. Just feels right. The other thing that happens is you'll find yourself holding bigger gears at high cadence which is faster. Duh.
Last, pedal stroke drills have been dissed by a lot of tri folk. I wholly disagree. You only need to focus on your stroke a bit and look at your power meter at the same time to see the better stroke manifest itself there. Good form matters, and a good pedal stroke will make the higher cadences feel better instead of bouncy and jerky.
Hope things are good in Davis. Hell of a bike shop there.
Sounds like I will be focusing on cadence and try to get closer to 90 rpm and make that the norm.
@Chris- Yep, there are several great bike shops here. And now the US Cycling HOF is here also.
Thanks!