I confess, I am a masher. I hate riding at high cadence. I love to push a big gear at about 65 RPM. The bigger the gear the better. I do admit, however, that my legs are shredded by the time I exit T2. In addition to pushing a big gear, I like to leave it all out on the bike course.
I want to reform myself. I want to run better and I want to try riding at a higher cadence. Anyone successful in moving to a higher cadence? How do I do it? I have all winter to teach myself. Your help is appreciated.
yesterday we did a group training session where we did 4x500m (same interval distance recovery) in small gear at max rpm (in my case 39x19, average 150 rpms or thereabouts to a max of 168 rpm) then alternating 3.5km MT intervals (53x12 or the largest gear you can push @ 30-40rpm) 3.5km of lower gear at 100-110 rpm. 90rpm feels real slow after sessions like these. Caveat this was not triathlon training group, but road.
I confess, I am a masher. I hate riding at high cadence. I love to push a big gear at about 65 RPM. The bigger the gear the better. I do admit, however, that my legs are shredded by the time I exit T2. In addition to pushing a big gear, I like to leave it all out on the bike course.
I want to reform myself. I want to run better and I want to try riding at a higher cadence. Anyone successful in moving to a higher cadence? How do I do it? I have all winter to teach myself. Your help is appreciated.
Get rollers. I managed to increase my cadence to the point where I routinely average about 100 during TTs, and averaged 96 or 97 for two hours at flank speed this weekend.
I’m going through the same right now. When I’m riding on the road, I’m trying to be 1 or 2 gears higher than I would normally feel comfortable in. It requires some concentration and focus, but I slowly seem to increase my cadence. It doesn’t affect the speed. My heart rate may be a bit higher, but my muscles get tired later in the ride.
I successfully changes my cycling with higher cadence intervals. i started with 12 x :30 @ 90-95 rpms and went for 8 weeks till I was doing big ring work of 10 x 3:00 @ 100-110, it was tough but it helped me run better off the bike. i now hold 90+ always! no matter what the speed!
Singlespeed fixed gear bike. If you pedal slower, you go slower. I ride one gear during my commute in the winter. Usually cruise around 110 and get up to 180 on some small declines.
I climb at 70-75rpm, but ride around 85 right now. I used to spin more (95-100), but trained with a guy that mashed. Worked out to be better for me all around.
" set your front derailleur limit screw so you can’t use your big chainring. go on group ride with your friends. keep up. "
You are a sick man Jeff…great idea though. I am going through this same thing now. Ted Simkins told me I peddal too damn slow. I took my first spinning class today and also bought a new computer with cadence. I am going to become a spinner if I have to give myself a cardiac episode!
So Kus, no more 53x19 grinding up Perkins? Bummer, that was quite entertaining to witness, you are the “poor man’s Bjorn” on the bike
<< but my muscles get tired later in the ride. >>
So you start feeling worked at about mile 150, vs. maybe mile 135 riding the old way?
I must be the exception that proves the rule or something. My cadence has done nothing but drop this season, and I’m my fastest ever. (now, I don’t think I’m running as well as possible off the bike, so that may be related too)
I used to try to “be like Lance” and spin 95-110+ everywhere I rode; up, down, whatever. And I liked it, and got comfy with it, and was reasonably fast doing so. In drills, I can spin at 130+ for a minute, no problemo.
This year, I’ve found that I like to ride w/ a 85-95 cadence on flats, and around 80-85 on hills (slower if necessary, if the hill is just crazy steep). When I ride the trainer, I almost always keep my cadence at 100 or more, but on the road, 85-95 feels best. YMMV.
Murphy, what actually happened is that I went to Monty’s place. He saw my cadence dropping from 70 down to 63 rpm on a 35 mile loop. He later explained his points and told me to spin way more. Some days later on the same loop my legs just felt fresher coming off the bike although we were riding 105 miles. The speed seemed slower but it actually wasn’t.
Monty was riding around 110 rpm+ when I just came up to 80. My friend who was riding behind us said that it looked like Monty was spinning double my speed. Well, I’m trying. Otherwise, Perkins in the big ring, still unbeatable and hard to resist…
fixie with a 42/17 or 42/16. You’ll have to spin like hell to do 24 mph.
I occasionally take a cycling tempo class at an LBS. She starts with spin ups from 80-120 at 5 rpm intervals for one min each. (80-85-90-95, etc.) No rest as you step up. Brief rest. Then, 80-140 at 10 rpm steps for 30 seconds each. No rest between steps. Then, one leg drills for 4-5 minutes each leg for 2 sets. Then 5 minute tempos at increasing rpm and decreasing resistance. More spin ups to 120 or so. You can’t be lazy with those other people watching.
Yup. Fixie riding will get you there in a hurry. Or else. Single speed not as much, or at least not as quickly. Go with a 42/17 on 700’s (44/17 if you ride 650’s).
why don’t you try spinning at a higher cadence?
This is the way I did it. After years of mashing a mountain bike every where I went, I got on my new road bike and started spinning away. It only took about for or five fairly uncomfortable rides to get used to it.
A great project for the trainer over the winter. I did this last winter and it was a great change. I made up some one hour trainer workouts ten minute warm up at 80 RPM then alternating 5 Min at 85/ 5 at 80 5 at 90/ 5 at 80 up to 110 and back down to a 10 min cooldown all at easy aerobic level. It’s a god way to make triner workout less boring and build leg speed. It also will keep those colateral blood vessels in your legs in shape for spring.
I read a lot of stuff about studies at CSU comparing run time of grinders to spinners and 5K time were significantly better for spinners. A cadence of 90 RPM on the bike corresponds to a leg turnover of 90 as well, which is a nice turnover rate.
where I ride, at about top 5% in the IM, one can seee a 90 RPM rider a mile away because he looks like he’s spinning much faster than anyone else. I’d be really curious to know what really is the average cadence in the top 10-15% of the IM crowd. I would guess it is a lot lower than people think. I’d guess 80 would be a stretch…
Just lower gears & more pedaling focusing on keeping close to the same speed (sometimes gets hard without jumping, depends on what speed you are focusing on)
Over some months of training this way and focusing on pedal technique/cadence i have been able to increse my average from the low 80s to mid 90s even over long rides without thinking a lot about it. Before it was though to go beyond 100 rpm and now I can sustain 100-110 for a decent time on flat stretch.
I have also found that my “comfort zone” is around 90 rpm.
There are probably several training techniques that have worked for others. ie. 1 leg pedal, high cadence intervals, etc. For me it has been just constant focus on lowering a gear or two and increase pedaling speed.
Funny how different people are different. I’ve been trying to up my cadence on my trainer, and work keeping it around 90, yet when on the road 90 comes naturally, and I sometimes creep around 100, yet on the trainer 100 is a bitch for me to hold for any long period of time.
That’s a good point. I had a top 40 bike at Chicago this year with my 60-65 cadence approach. However, it seems like everything I read says up the cadence.
When I rode this past Sat. I tried to keep cadence above 80. After about a half an hour, I had to bag it and go back to my old ways (60-65). It just feels more comfortable to me. But I worry I am wasting some run energy/efficiency in my races.
I was riding the powercranks on Sat. which may have made it even more difficult to ride high cadence. Also, at the high cadence, my HR is way higher than my low cadence HR. I can’t keep it aerobic at the high cadence.
