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Change Gear or Cadence?
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Comfortably maintain average speed on the bike at 18 mph with an average cadence/rpm of 80-85 over the full distance. I would like to increase my overall average speed should I focus on shifting and riding in the next gear or increase cadence?
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Re: Change Gear or Cadence? [tri3ba] [ In reply to ]
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Most people have a cadence that they're comfortable with. What you need to focus on isn't your gearing or cadence, it's your power output. If you increase your power, you increase your speed and you will naturally gravitate towards whichever gear gives you your preferred cadence.
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Re: Change Gear or Cadence? [tri3ba] [ In reply to ]
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You can change 2 things to go faster... pedal force or cadence. pedal force is a function of leg strength (and ability to process lactic acid) and cadence is a function of flexibility and aerobic capacity. Which you change depends a lot on your physiology and training approach.

To ride to a faster cadence, you will need to improve your aerobic capacity and also improve leg flexibility and smoothness at higher RPMs.

To ride with greater pedal force, you will need to ride hard intervals that develop the strength. (And with that, you will also improve aerobic capacity.)

Truly, the answer is just ride harder intervals and don't think about cadence at all. That will develop naturally. You may find that you increase both pedal force and cadence. If you train indoors, get a program like TrainerRoad with structured plans, and just follow their Base & Build plans for your desired distance.
Last edited by: exxxviii: Nov 8, 19 9:08
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