Its not "cheating" as you are correct that a watt is a watt is a watt, regardless of cadence. However, efficiency at various cadences may differ based on what you're used to. My preferred cadence is somewhere around 90-95, and my FTP intervals feel best at some point in this range. It becomes significantly harder for me to hold FTP power at MUCH lower or higher cadences, and my RPE certainly increases below or above that range.
The key here is to train yourself to ride at a cadence at which you expect to ride in your A race. If you're doing Lake Placid or another hilly race, you can expect to ride a lot of your race at lower cadences, as you'll be climbing a lot (unless your gearing lets you spin easily up all the hills). A flat race tends to lend itself to higher cadences. Tailor your training to the type of riding you expect to do in your race. Alternatively, train at a variety of cadences to improve your overall ability to adapt to the unexpected in your races. The last thing you want is to train all year at 95 rpms only to find out your race and gearing choice relegates you to 80.
@Joel, lisbeth's point was that the ladies she coaches get to X strength on the trainer, but then just spin outdoors without real speed. They don't have the ability to keep on it, pushing into winds, up hills / down hills b/c they haven't trained to push hard on the bike...they spin higher. It's more anecdotal than anything else, but a point worth noting.
Still doesn't make sense to me. She is equating pushing hard with turning the cranks slow. The only time I turn 70rpm up hill or into the wind is when I don't have the gears to spin 95rpm. I ride a compact and use a 12-27 for hilly races so I rare find myself in a situation where I HAVE to grind lohw rpm. If I were going to be doing an uphill TT or racing one of the big climbing IM events then I guess I could see doing some low-cadence training because that's what I'd be facing. But I tend to choose my gearing to avoid that whenever possible. Maybe these ladies should consider a 52/36 compact with an 11 tooth small cog.
Seems to me this all boils down to the resistance level they are setting on the spin bikes, if they are actually riding spin bikes. My guess is that they are riding spin bikes with very low resistance and that at 100 or so rpm's they still are not doing more than maybe 150 watts. Those flywheels don't require that much effort to turn once you get them going if you have the resistance dialed down. That's why they can't get it done out on the road. If they were to turn up the resistance and could do 100 rpms, then they would be animals out on the road. It would be just like us putting our bikes in the trainer and getting in the 53x11 and doing 100 rpms. That would require some serious wattage and if we could do it, we'd also be strong on the road. But if we trained with our bike in 35x27 and did 100 rpms, we might be wimps on the road.
Comments
@Lauren:
Its not "cheating" as you are correct that a watt is a watt is a watt, regardless of cadence. However, efficiency at various cadences may differ based on what you're used to. My preferred cadence is somewhere around 90-95, and my FTP intervals feel best at some point in this range. It becomes significantly harder for me to hold FTP power at MUCH lower or higher cadences, and my RPE certainly increases below or above that range.
The key here is to train yourself to ride at a cadence at which you expect to ride in your A race. If you're doing Lake Placid or another hilly race, you can expect to ride a lot of your race at lower cadences, as you'll be climbing a lot (unless your gearing lets you spin easily up all the hills). A flat race tends to lend itself to higher cadences. Tailor your training to the type of riding you expect to do in your race. Alternatively, train at a variety of cadences to improve your overall ability to adapt to the unexpected in your races. The last thing you want is to train all year at 95 rpms only to find out your race and gearing choice relegates you to 80.
Great point @Steve! Make sure you are familiar w/ your primary/"A" race terrain and be prepared for cadence ranges associated with it.