Do you tip of the spear types work on (worked on) cadence on the bike?
I am in zwift all the time now and many of the workouts are telling me to pedal at 100rpm then 65rpm etc… I notice that at higher rpm my heart rate spikes compared with same power at my normal cadence, which is around 85rpm.
Do I need to work on this?
Also, bonus question can anyone here pee while aero? I know this is horrible but I can only pee standing up, respective leg straight… being 6 foot 3 this essentially makes me a sail for however long the job takes and I am sure is costing me minutes and matches. Any tips (pun absolutely intended) ?
years ago i ‘got into’ cadence - before GPS and all that. i actually had one of those magnet speedometers with a crankarm cadence sensor. and a sweet old-school polar HRM!
i spent a lot of time watching the interplay between speed, cadence, and heartrate (then, as now, no wattage for this guy).
my main impression is that they’re definitely interrelated in interesting ways, but that it really varies person-to-person. some people are able to maximize their speed for a given effort at lower cadence, and some at higher. i settled, like you, into a high-80s/90 sweet spot for a while, but at heart i’m a grinder.
Weird right? I can sit at 230 watts for hours at 80ish rpm but same power at 90+ and I am gassed after a few mins… I worry that I am ruining my run by grinding and using more muscle than I need to.
For me, it’s easier to push high watts at 90+. There is a trade off though, as you’ve noticed, with the higher heart rate. Most of the time I settle in to low/mid 80’s when I’m riding inside. I tend to spin at mid to high 80’s when I’m riding outside. I’m closer to the middle of the spear than the tip.
I do not have an answer on the cadence questions. I am grinder with a cadence in the high 70’s during my long rides. There is definitely a theory that low cadence work improves bike performance, but I think that it works better for people with a natural cadence around 90.
I am 6’5" and can only pee while standing up and not pedaling. I usually try to spot a downhill or two for the purpose which reduces seconds lost. (My only tip). I figure that if it takes 30 seconds, I might be losing 15. I do know that I am definitely beating the guy that goes to the port o john in transition.
For high power efforts - say FTP and above I find myself in the 85 - 90 rpm. At times I can be in mid to upper 70’s (I know I’m grinding at this cadence but I’m not uncomfortable the way I am in the 90’s).
That said, I can handle bursts where maybe I’m not in the right gear and need to spin up in high 90’s to low 100’s. But would never naturally find myself there.
It’s probably a slow twitch fast twitch muscle fiber thing.
I think the goal is to go as fast as you can for as long as you can. What your cadence is - I wouldn’t worry about.
Maybe cadence is a variable you play with to see how well you run off the bike. But if you’re just biking then, I’m not sure I would worry about it.
Do you tip of the spear types work on (worked on) cadence on the bike?
30 years on, I don’t even think about it.
I came from that old-school where the higher cadence, coupled with riding the rollers in my formative years, and I’m naturally most comfortable, at 95 - 100 rpm.
I’ve never used a power meter, but I do know that when I start to get down in the low 80’s I really start to bog down. I’m guessing my power is starting to trail off down here.
It all kind of makes sense. I’m pretty lean, have no bulging muscles, but can turn it over at 95 - 100 all day long!
The cadence debate has been going on for years. I think everyone with a bit of trial and error, and now possibly with the help of some more advanced technology, can find what is optimal for them.
I’m not a tip of the spear guy. I don’t focus too much on cadence. I’m aware of it and will play around with riding at difference cadences to see if there was a difference. Awhile back I wanted to see if my run after my long ride was affected much by different cadences. Same workout two weeks in a row. First week was at slower cadence. Next week I made sure to have a faster cadence. For me there was zero difference for the run
I think that it is very useful to train at a range of cadences. That way your muscles are more well rounded and going into the wind, with the wind, up hill, or downhill does not feel completely foreign. I think that during races, it will be what it will be, but the ability to being able to put out power and speed at a range of cadences is nice to have in your quiver.
Now I find that I’ll do my sweet spot or tempo at 75-80 and longer easy distance at 85ish. In a race I’ve noticed though that cadence seems to rise a bit on its own (afterwards I see it was 85-90).
I am not sure if this goes against anyone’s grain, but I find myself hovering around the low 80s when I ignore the cadence meter for a while. Occasionally I’ll need to accelerate around someone and find that grinding it out in a lower gear gets me around them faster than upping my cadence and maybe switching to a higher gear. Other times I find the complete opposite. I guess it depends on which muscle fibers I trashed just before needing to accelerate.
I think that it is very useful to train at a range of cadences. That way your muscles are more well rounded and going into the wind, with the wind, up hill, or downhill does not feel completely foreign. I think that during races, it will be what it will be, but the ability to being able to put out power and speed at a range of cadences is nice to have in your quiver.
I’m reasonably swift on the bike…ftp of 3.7 w/kg but I’m slowly dropping some weight to get it above 4. Not the very tip, though, for sure. Plenty are faster than me.
My warmup is a cadence ladder going from 90-130 rpm at something around a minute each then back down. Pretty low wattage.
Then I’ll do 1 leg drills at low cadence in the big ring somewhere at 1 minute each 2 or 3 times per leg depending on time.
The whole thing takes me 15 minutes.
The reason being that I really vary my cadence up during a race, intentionally so. I’ll end up at 87-90 rpm average but if I drop it to 70 for 5-10 minutes at around the same wattage, it feels like I’m giving myself a break. Then I’ll jump up to 100 for a while and that feels like a break from low cadence and I’ll settle back in to my normal cadence for a while.
Also if I’m traveling somewhere that has super long climbs, I climb at a high cadence and if I don’t practice I’ll settle in at too low of a cadence and burn out my legs too quickly.
This is what I’ve found has lead to my best bike splits. I don’t know if it holds water scientifically, but it works for me.
