I’vd had PC’s since November. Used them regularly on a trainer almost daily for 4-5 weeks to get used to them. Then took the holidays off and then spent the winter riding about 2x/week for eay spins so my brain/legs would remember…
Now I’ve been riding outside fairly regularly for about 8 weeks - took some long easy 4 hour rides - probably averaged about 8 hours/week on the bike. I can spin 80-85 and stay in aero position (not super low) fairly well. I coast and take short breaks on my longer rides. Haven’t done much speed/hard intervals. I’ve been running more than last year (both frequency and volume).
I raced Wildflower - swam well - felt pretty good on the bike and my HR was o.k. for effort/speed (was high 150’s/low 160’s) - which is likely too hard for a half IM for me but I was trying a different pacing strategy (by feel). Anyway - coasted on the downs - worked steady on the flats and tried to conserve energy on the climbs. Did not monitor my cadence. Stayed aero when appropriate. Raced on regular cranks. Died on the run. Legs felt sluggish/heavy. Could not run a quick light cadence (90ish). Now I’ve been running a fair amount more for me and have felt strong on my longer runs (up to 3 hours when training for a marathon which I skipped and 2 1/2 hours in the hills a month out) - felt good on my runs even after long bikes…
My question: My plan is to work to get my cadence to low 90’s on the PC’s. Work the bike more in training - volume and intensity - limit coasting on most rides. Decrease my running. What do you think? How important is it to get PC cadence to run cadence? How important to keep racing cadence at PC-sustainable cadence (like you do in training?). Is this what Frank Day means by “smart racing”? Seems like Yaquicarbo trains on a road bike - lower cadences - then races aero (lower position) and runs higher cadence (than PC) quite well…is he the exception or the norm?
Sounds like you are adapting quite well. I would agree with your plan, start emphasising getting your sustainable cadence up and improve your aero position if need be.
What I mean by racing smart is to race as you are PC capable. I think the tendency of most people is to race at higher cadences on regular cranks because they find it so “easy”. Since you didn’t monitor your cadence during the race I will bet it came up beyond your PC cadence which probably explains why your legs were toast on the run. Of course, it could have just been the heat also. Anyhow, as you get your PC cadence up, then you will tend to race regular cranks at the same cadence as you can PC, so this needing to monitor yourself to race “smart” will go away with time.
I look forward to hearing from some of the more experienced users to see if they agree.
I find I must watch my cadence during a race, because it IS a race and I’m excited! As you know, regular cranks are a piece of cake compared to PC pedalling, so any little sloppiness in my stroke on regular cranks is “covered up” and lost in the noise of a race situation. Therefore, if I don’t watch it, I’ll be pedalling along at 95-105 rpms, when I usually train about 85 rpms. Sure enough, when I catch myself doing that, I click down a couple of gears and get back to 85 rpm, my effort is lessened, and my speed usually goes up, too.
I’m guessing you were at higher rpms than you thought, for longer than you thought. “Feel” will fool me, maybe it fooled you, too.
Don’t give me too much credit for running fast, though. Although I’m running faster than the great majority of my AG, still, we’re old men! Actually, I outsplit the nearest AGer on the bike by over 3 minutes last weekend, and then had the fastest run split, too. You had to look at an AG 15 years younger than I to find a faster bike split. I started getting really impressed with that performance, then, it occured to me that there was another triathlon a couple of hours away the next day…maybe some of the “Big Dogs” were saving themselves for that OTHER race. Oh, well, it was still a good race for me.