Slowly slaying the high cadence myth....

[PaulSB]

Last club ride i looked at my cadence at the end just out of interest , i didnt consciously keep an eye on it more than usual.
Average for the ride 80 , max of 109 rpm .
I am heavy legged rider and do find i tend to push bigger gears than some of the lightweight riders.

Interesting comments here. I've always pushed a big gear but have recently changed this. About a year ago I met a friend of a friend on a ride. This guy was clearly very experienced and very good.

In January my friend said the guy was asking after me and said "You know, that chap who pushes ridiculously big gears." or words to this effect. I wasn't upset by this but it made me think. He remembered me, not my name but the gears I push. From what I'd seen of his riding his opinion was one to respect and consider.

I've always found spinning very uncomfortable. When lockdown hit I spent a lot of time riding alone and "trained" my legs to spin for a 30-40 mile ride. It's improved my riding significantly and I now spin all the time. What I now realise is I pushed big gears in the mistaken belief it helped me keep with the group. It did but spinning would have been better.

When club friends remark on the change I tell my little story. I get two responses; "we've been telling you this for years" or "Yes, you're known for pushing bug gears."

I now realise I was always to concerned to stick with the group to concentrate on trying to spin.

Anyway just thought this might be a useful experience to pass on.

 

[Nebulous]

This is a month old, but I’ve just found it.

I have a cadence session I do on Zwift. 5 mins warm up, then 7 x 10min blocks, all at 170 watts (70% of ftp) then cool down.

Sometimes I start at a cadence of 60, sometimes at 70. I go up 10 every 10 minutes, then back down again. So 70, 80, 90, 100, 90, 80, 70. Usually on a turbo session at steady watts I’ll have a degree of cardiac drift with my heart-rate rising slightly throughout the session. On my cadence drills workout it goes up until I reach 100, but then comes down slightly as I come back down. That suggests to me that I’m using less effort / energy at lower cadences.

Strangely non of the round tens, except possibly 90 feel natural. 76 feels much more comfortable, as does 84, than 70 or 80. I generally have to watch the cadence record and adjust regularly where I could hold 76 much more readily by feel.

 

[Pikey]

I’ll add a bit more complexity to the biochemical component. The motor units, essentially groups of myocytes, like any other cell use ATP as their energy source for movement or any other process. They ‘burn’ that essentially, not glucose, fat or glycogen.
However the body makes atp from these longer chain molecules through phosphorylation.
I think there would probably be a lot more factors in play as to which pathway the body chooses to use as its ultimate long chain source for phosphorylation other than cadence. Like body composition, glycogen load in the muscles, blood glucose levels or amount of carbohydrate in the gut at that point.
Instantaneous And therefore respiratory load I.e. cadence on the muscles may play a part, but I don’t think it’s as simple as higher cadence burns fat or vice versa...

 

[davidphilips]

Far as i know cadence training improves your cadence and low heart rate training improves quite a few things including the ability to use fat as a fuel source, both cadence and low heart rate training are part of base training and hence the old saying you need to cycle slow to cycle really fast?

 

[CXRAndy]

Usually on a turbo session at steady watts I’ll have a degree of cardiac drift with my heart-rate rising slightly throughout the session. On my cadence drills workout it goes up until I reach 100, but then comes down slightly as I come back down. That suggests to me that I’m using less effort / energy at lower cadences.

Heart rate drift is to be expected a little, but I found once I could do 2 hours non stop high cadence 95+ rpm and my heart tracked the cadence drills with pretty constant power, I was cardio fit.

If it keeps climbing, then more cardio workout is required.

Raised HR with higher cadence is just transfering more load to your cardiovascular system than legs.

My HR could be 10-15 bpm lower with a low cadence 50-60 rpm but its no easier. It just burns your legs, which is fine for training, but sustained over a long day of riding could ruin your next days ride out.

 

[ianrauk]

So it's been 6 weeks since I fitted a cadence meter to my commute bike.
My average is running at 86, with lows of 80+, highs in the mid 90's.