Is it worth training to increase cadence?

[philinmerthyr]

My normal cadence on my weekend rides is around 70 rpm. In an effort to improve I did a couple of midweek 10 mile rides focusing on cadence. I increased it to 80-85 rpm and found it really hard. My average speed dropped and my heart rate was up by around 10 bpm.

Should I persevere with training for the higher cadence? I'm sure it will make me fitter once I overcome the first few weeks of pain.

I am training for the London100 in about 18 weeks so thought a higher cadence will help my legs last the 8 hrs of cycling.

I would welcome advice from those more experienced.

 

[Brommyboy]

High cadence comes with fitness: I developed mine by cycle-commuting. Staying in one gear while doubling speed to keep up with fluctuating traffic is what did it for me, over a period of time. 'Spinning' at a high cadence is far more efficient than powering slowly, once it has developed.

 

[Rapples]

In short...

Yes.

For longer rides you need to train to push an easier gear for longer

 

[cyberknight]

Its all down to practise, did you try dropping a gear or just spinning the same gear you would push at the lower rpm ?
I found a speedo invaluable as i can think to myself that i need to go up a gear and when i do my speed will drop a good .5 mph +

 

[MattHB]

Yes.

 

[fossyant]

Ideal cadence is about 80 to 100. I average about 90. Commuting on a fixed helps though. Practice makes perfect. 70 is way too low on the flat.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Mt over all avg at the mo is high 70's, but thats with climbing, on the flat I guess mid 80's. My average dropped when I started climbing back in Sept/Oct (nothing large just some local short climbs) and my gear " dropped, both are now increasing again, as is my average speed, that that isn't fast at just over 14mph for the month, but compared with Nov @ 12.9 mph and similar climb rate just under 50ft a mile, it a great improvement

 

[GrasB]

Cadence often comes as a side effect of increased power output. If you're stretching your self to ride at 80-85rpm you may not producing enough power to give the resistance required by your muscles to maintain the coordination & motion. If this is the case you were having to provide the required resistance & so expended a lot more energy than you should have done. However, if you simply haven't developed the muscle coordination to spin properly you need to do drills.

Now, if you do want to do cadence drills then you need to do intervals of very high cadence for 3 or 4 min then relax & recover. Cadence training is no different to other strength training, in fact cadence drills actually are a specific type of power training. For this reason you need to push your extreme limits in short & confined bursts to see proper gains. What do I mean by very high cadence? Around 1.5-1.75x of your nominal cadence. The lower your rpm the higher up the range you should aim, so assuming 70rpm nominal cadence for you I'd be looking to be at close to 1.75x or 120rpm.

One thing you may note is that I talk about your nominal cadence, not average. So what do I mean by nominal cadence? It's the cadence you normally ride at on the flat for a given power output or a given speed in low wind/still air conditions. This may well be different to your average cadence & might be a bit hard to track if you've got a basic trip computer rather than a GPS cycle computer or heart rate monitor (HRM).

 

[festival]

Also, if you you want to go faster you will have to use bigger gears at times,but If you can't spin average gears now you will never be able to pedal bigger gears effectively and therefore go faster for longer

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Also, if you you want to go faster you will have to use bigger gears at times,but If you can't spin average gears now you will never be able to pedal bigger gears effectively and therefore go faster for longer

Not quite true, as you become fitter, you can push bigger gears at a faster rate for longer, and the more you do it the fitter you become and hence push bigger gears long at a faster rate, to a point.

 

[GrasB]

Not quite true, as you become fitter, you can push bigger gears at a faster rate for longer, and the more you do it the fitter you become and hence push bigger gears long at a faster rate, to a point.

^^ This. The stronger you get the more power you produce. The more power you produce the faster you spin the pedals, the more force you apply to the pedals & the higher the gear you run.

Mined from my training data:

Power      Cadence     Gear       Force
(+/- 10w)   (ave)    (typical)    (ave)
150w        97rpm      39:16       8.6kg
250w       109rpm      39:14      12.8kg
350w       118rpm   39:13/54:18   16.5kg
500w       128rpm      54:17      21.7kg

 

[Nigelnaturist]

^^ This. The stronger you get the more power you produce. The more power you produce the faster you spin the pedals, the more force you apply to the pedals & the higher the gear you run.

Mined from my training data:

Power      Cadence    Gear      Force
(+/- 10w)  (ave)    (typical)    (ave)
150w        97rpm      39:16      8.6kg
250w      109rpm      39:14      12.8kg
350w      118rpm  39:13/54:18  16.5kg
500w      128rpm      54:17      21.7kg

I am not that good but from data from strava at one point today 127w 102rpm gear 59.62" approx 38x17

 

[GrasB]

That isn't a table of single data points, that's a table of aggregated data. If I was to plot the rpm v's number of occurrences for 150w you'd see something similar to a standard distribution bell curve with the peek close to 97rpm. So yes there are some cases of me being up at well past 150rpm & also well bellow 50rpm but the bulk of the data points will be in the 85-105rpm area.

 

[philinmerthyr]

Thanks for your comments. I did a 15 mile ride today with an average cadence of 81 rpm. Focusing on cadence will, I'm sure help me improve.

I agree with the later posts around power and gears. However, the other factor is weight. I am relatively strong. My legs are very strong as such I can produce the power. My challenge is that at 21st there is a lot of weight to move. I have 20inch calfs and that is all muscle. Lots of fat in other areas but my legs have got very big since I started riding regularly in October. In the last 5 months I have ridden 1,500 miles.

I'm not the typical cyclist but I am improving and losing weight. I've ridden up to 50 miles and know that I will do the London100 within the time limit. Through the winter I have just focused on riding the bike. I now need to train properly, hence my question on cadence.

 

[kedab]

I am not that good but from data from strava at one point today 127w 102rpm gear 59.62" approx 38x17

it's bad that i don't understand any of that, isn't it?