I wanted to expand on Nate's comments a little by pointing out the different tolls that different cadences take on your body. In a nutshell, slower, sub-90 cadences are muscular spins, increasingly so as you slow down to "climbing" cadences as low as 60rpm (yikes) whereas quicker, 90+ cadences are more cardiorespiratory in that they noticeably ramp up your heart rate and breathing more than a slower spin. I like to put this in hiking terms by asking riders to imagine slowly trudging up a steep grade by taking large, lumbering steps that place a lot of stress on your leg muscles (and joints) due to long, forceful contractions that keep your breathing in check but place you at the top of the hill with heavy legs. Compare that to a hiker who's taking short, choppy, rapid steps up the hill, breathing noticeably harder, but reaches the top with legs that can probably handle some more climbing, almost immediately.
Now relate this to a cycling scenario where you climb a 4-mile, 5% grade at 65rpm only to summit with legs that NEED a downhill segment in order to recover, legs that even post-downhill are tired and lethargic and load up very soon into your next climb. Compare this to the rider who has cultivated a comfortably-quick, much more nimble 85rpm climbing cadence that shifts the demand more toward the far less fatigable heart & lungs (diaphragm). By fostering greater aerobic fitness via consistent, higher-cadence efforts over numerous rides and workouts, climbing or otherwise, this rider will summit and roll right past that summit-sign-photo-op because s/he is ready to RIDE the descent rather than coast or backpedal to the base of the next climb. And upon reaching that next climb, this same rider will settle back into a quick-ish spin that again taxes the heart & lungs fueled more by ever-plentiful oxygen in an effort to preserve your muscles and far less plentiful sugar stores.
To distill this down to an oversimplified lesson, slow spins stress muscles and burn sugar while quicker spins stress your heart/lungs, preserve muscles & sugar, and better utilize oxygen. Just ask Jan Ulrich why he could never accelerate and catch Lance and he'll tell you, "my legs were cooked, man!" ;-)
Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
Now relate this to a cycling scenario where you climb a 4-mile, 5% grade at 65rpm only to summit with legs that NEED a downhill segment in order to recover, legs that even post-downhill are tired and lethargic and load up very soon into your next climb. Compare this to the rider who has cultivated a comfortably-quick, much more nimble 85rpm climbing cadence that shifts the demand more toward the far less fatigable heart & lungs (diaphragm). By fostering greater aerobic fitness via consistent, higher-cadence efforts over numerous rides and workouts, climbing or otherwise, this rider will summit and roll right past that summit-sign-photo-op because s/he is ready to RIDE the descent rather than coast or backpedal to the base of the next climb. And upon reaching that next climb, this same rider will settle back into a quick-ish spin that again taxes the heart & lungs fueled more by ever-plentiful oxygen in an effort to preserve your muscles and far less plentiful sugar stores.
To distill this down to an oversimplified lesson, slow spins stress muscles and burn sugar while quicker spins stress your heart/lungs, preserve muscles & sugar, and better utilize oxygen. Just ask Jan Ulrich why he could never accelerate and catch Lance and he'll tell you, "my legs were cooked, man!" ;-)
Head Coach at TrainerRoad
Co-host of the Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast
Last edited by:
chadtimmerman: Jan 24, 12 12:19