I have a 17 mile training course that I do quite often. I usually try to hammer this course to get my fastest ave speed. Since it takes less than 1 hour I don’t try to save anything. My best effort to date on this 17 mile course was 18.1 MPH max HR of 164, ave HR 139, calories burned 776. I don’t know my cadence for this ride, but I know I would spend quite a bit of time grinding larger gears spinning in the 60s and 70s.
Sunday I decided to focus on keeping my cadence up by using lighter gears. My plan was to stay seated and spin 90 RPM or greater.
My speed was 17.4 MPH Max HR 162, Ave HR 139 calories burned 773.
I don’t have a power meter, but based on HR and calories burned it seems to me that the power output for both rides must be similar as the ave Hr was 139 and within 3 calories of each other. I am making an assumption that there is a correlation between calories HR and Power.
My question is if I had to run afterwards which cycling profile would be better? I used 3 less calories to go .7 MPH slower. I guess I don’t see the advantage of pushing a higher cadence if it results in a slower time for the same HR and energy consumed. This was my first time playing with forcing a higher cadence? Should I be trying to push a higher HR? When I run my ave HR is closer to 150. I feel like I am missing something here.
chevy57