exxxviii wrote:
Does anyone know of a free online tool that could do analysis and charting of FIT data? I would love to chart my power vs. cadence over a few of my rides that had some terrain diversity. I did it against my 5 mile Garmin splits of my last HIM ride that included a mountain climb plus some really tough shorter climbs. But, the data were not discrete enough. I suspect that most of us have a power & cadence curve that looks something like this. For mashers, the range may be compressed and flattened. But, for spinners, I bet there is a very high peak at low cadence where we are climbing and then a sweet spot that may only be 5 to 10 RPM wide where we are cruising at IM/HIM/Oly/Sprint race speeds.How much of that low-cadence climbing is dictated by gearing restriction than optimal/comfortable cadence? I personally like to ride around 90 rpm. I don't aim for it, as I don't monitor rpm while riding, but when I review my ride data afterwards, my average cadence is always around 90 and my variability is minimal. Uphill, downhill, riding hard, cruising; +/-90 is generally what feels good to me. It's pretty flat around here, so I can get away with close ratio cassettes (12-25 on the tri bike, 12-27 on the road bike). When I do hit the occasional steeper climb, then, I'm often forced to go below my preferred cadence. I frequently end up over-powering to keep the cadence from going even farther below the comfortable range, and to get the damn hill over with. Or simply to keep the wheels turning fast enough to maintain balance. Does't mean I'm more efficient at lower RPM, but rather than a low RPM was forced on me by my lack of low range gearing. That's the give-back for having the tight-range cassettes that allow me to stay close to 90 rpm the rest of the time.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"