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What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon?
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I keep experimenting with lower and lower cadences on the bike split after finding that I'm faster, and have a lower HR, at lower cadences. Also, my runs splits are much improved compared to the past couple of years, so it doesn't seem to be hurting my run. This is contrary to many of the recommendations on this site as well as other sites. I came from a background of maintaining circa 100 rpms on the bike, and 90 was considered to be slow. Now, I sometimes run in the upper 70s, although I'm usually in the lower/mid 80s. What are your actual race rpms in triathlons?



Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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I feel that I do best with a 85/ 87 cadence on the longer rides, I monitor my HR and feel that with a 140-145 hr and a 85 cadance I get the max mph.

On shoter races all bets are off, but perhaps I should look at the cadance and push a bigger gear?

I probably should just follow what you are doing since you beat me in every catagory.

Henk

Alex Jonker
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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80-85 RPM... and generally have the fastest bike split in my age group.

I think the fact that "Lance" rides with high RPM has made everyone ignore that virtually every other fast time trialist doesn't.
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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85-90, I always was told that your footstrikes should match your cadence.
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [Henk J] [ In reply to ]
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Henk, my friend...just because my times might be incrementally faster, doesn't mean I beat you in other categories...such as having the most fun, being an inspiration to your daughter, giving back to the sport (you are a referree now, right?), etc. At the end of the day, I'm sure you lead me in as many categories as I lead you...speed is just one part of this thing we call triathlon.

Gary, this is what I was taught, too. It just doesn't seem to be working in actual races.

Zinc, I've often said that if Lance does it one way, I should do the polar opposite, because I'm certainly NOT a Lance! I knew I rode faster straight TT's at low rpms (this was proven to me last year when someone told me to push higher gears and quit spinning on the club TT's), but I was always "taught" that lower rpms on the bike would hurt my run. I think there are probably a lot of us that run lower rpms (arbitrarily defined as below 85 rpms) and don't go slower on the run as a result.

I say that because the only people I see that pass me on the bike and that also run faster than me are turning slower rpms.

The only way to know for certain is to do self-testing, over and over. You'd have to do it many times over a period of time in order to weed out the day-to-day variables.



Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)
Last edited by: yaquicarbo: May 18, 03 10:05
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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yaqui,

The fly in this ointment (of your question) is the PC's. It is not clear to me that what works best for a PC trained athlete should work best for a non-PC trained athlete and vice-versa. We are still in the eperimenting stage regarding how to best race using the PC pedaling technique. My GUESS is that most users will be fastest (for sustained TT type speed which is what triathlon is) with a cadence somewhere in the 80's. Those with very high power outputs (pros) may be best in the low 90's, again, my GUESS). Whether that is optimum for triathlon, where the athlete must then get off the bike and run is another question.

You are an "experiment" (uncontrolled, unfortunately) in progress (as is goatboy, ttn, and all the other PC'ers out there) and we (I) await your reports.

Frank

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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maintaining 90 rpm is my average, but when I'm powering up or climbing I'm at 85
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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I normally ride between 95 and 100 for flat races....

I could be a little faster using a lower cadence, but I will have to pay on the run.....

Luiz Eng
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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I did a little sprint race yesterday and decided to check my cadence a couple of times while I was racing. I had to count it since I don't have a cadence feature on the bike. For the 15 mile ride on a pancake flat ride, I averaged 25.0 mph and each time I counted I was right around 94rpm. I don't count run cadence but I got off and was running 5:50 pace for the 3 mile run afterwards. I used to spin a much lower cadence with much bigger gears and also run much faster but I think over the years a loss of pure muscle strength and knee problems (not caused by cycling or running) have pushed me to a higher cadence now. I am working on building back the strength (power) though and would like to eventually drop the cadence back to the lower 80 range and start going to the larger gears again to see if that will result in faster bike splits.

Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [Frank Day] [ In reply to ]
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Glad to be part of an experiment where I keep getting faster!

I think you may be on to something about top athletes doing best in the low 90's and "others" doing better at lower cadences. Top-level triathlete runners reportedly have about a 180 cadence (or 90 rpm) on the run (I'm referring to people that run in the mid-teens in a 5K). Others, back in the pack, run at a slower cadence. Maybe the higher the calibre runner, the higher the cadence on the bike? Others, like myself (I can break 20 in a 5K, but haven't done it in a triathlon, YET), perhaps we do our best at a bike cadence that more closely reflects our run cadence? It's a thought...



Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [yaquicarbo] [ In reply to ]
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I don't know if there would be any physiological reason for faster riders to use a higher cadence, although I could imagine there are neuromuscular differences that may account for it... The slower cadence of slow runners is really just a product of gravity, and I don't see how it would tie into cycling.

As for using a cycing/running optimal cadence this actually makes pretty good sense. (my field of interest is evolutionary psychology/physiology) It wouldn't surprise me if our cardiovascular and muscle system was functioned best at an 80-100 cadence as a result of running adaptations.
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [Zinc] [ In reply to ]
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Cool! I never knew evolutionary psychology/physiology was a field of study!

I don't know loads about the neuromuscular biochemistry aspects of using/preserving glycogen in muscle at different rpms, although I've heard sensible reasons for maintaining rpms above 90 in order to have higher outputs for longer periods of time. (My past experiences tend to support this reasoning.) I'm more accustomed to thinking along the more simple lines of blood flow/pressure gradients and Oxygen delivery/waste removal in tissue beds. From this relatively simple viewpoint, it makes sense to me that somewhere in this 80-100 rpm range, a best blood flow/O2 delivery/waste removal rate occurs in the working muscle, and maybe it even is related to the length of the work effort.

I'm just pleasantly surprised that experimenting with these "lower" rpms on the bike hasn't resulted in slower run times for me.



Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)
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Re: What cadence do you ride in a Triathlon? [Zinc] [ In reply to ]
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zinc wrote "I don't know if there would be any physiological reason for faster riders to use a higher cadence,"

There are and it goes to the physics of producing power on a bicycle by biological systems. Power is force per distance per unit time. biological systems can only produce force through muscle contraction and as the speed of contraction increases the ability to apply force will drop off such that there will be an optimum speed of contraction to produce maximum power. biological systems also are limited in the amount of force they can apply at any speed. On a bicycle, the distance the force is applied per unit time is the distance the pedal travels per unit time. So, maximum power will occur at a pedal speed where force has not dropped off too much but pedal distance traveled is relatively large. In general, the better trained the rider (the more power he/she can achieve or sustain) the higher the cadence will be where this "best cadence" is.

--------------
Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks
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