Why is Lance base training at 110 cad ? - Page 2

in the 2002 tour lance got beaten in the time trial by botero a BIG upset.. for the following stages lance altered his cadence and tried different gear ratios DURING the tour to see if he was more effecient.. the end result was he returned to his normal 100 - 110rpm and accepted he had a bad ride while botero had a good ride.. think its the person that counts.. i figure if you cycle long enough your body will eventually find its equilibrium.. the most effecient way for your body!!

For millions of years mankind walked the earth....

and for a couple of hundred years we rode our bikes....

Intellect can impose its own equilibrium...

I'm going with "train it" = "attain it"

Take ten different people, give them SRM's and one year, and at the end of it you will have 10 different 'favorite' cadences... Not to mention 10 different best cadences for power over 1 hr, 2 hrs...etc.

If LA is doing 110 rpm's the only thing you can be sure of is he is doing it for a reason specific to his body and his needs. Who knows how many days or hours he'll do -- maybe he was sore, maybe he's planning for a single stage, a single climb, a single attack....etc.

I like Lance and I kinda bought into the whole Carmichael thing... But the essence of it is: Lance has 5 Tour Wins and all it took was a lot of hard work. Since cadence is only 1 part of the equation there must be other factors that play a vital role to be able to ride away from Jan or Joseba. Maybe there are adverse effects to high cadences, maybe there are different adverse effects to lower cadences. There may be things one can do (and training is probably just 1 of them) to counter these effects.

Just reading Carmichael's books and watching reports on Lance and his training will not help you win 5 Tours. Factor in the spin that they put on things that go wrong (e.g. Lance loosing to Botero in 2002, Lance loosing to Ulle in 2003) you can't really take that information literally.

Personally I try to ride at 90+ cadence all the time though sometimes on uphill sections I can't do it. If your training goal is to challenge Lance in 2004, first of all good luck, and second you will need the same kind of resources and access to the same information that Lance and Chris have.

Interesting topic though... Thx for posting.

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The goal is to understand training effect.
base training at a specified cadence struck me as inventive and topic worth discussing.
I have no illusions about my cycling performance, maybe one, or two...or

Sure.. I did not really mean "you" as in YOU personally... Just a general YOU as in "all YOU Wanna-Bee-Armstrongs out there"

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Driven, pushed, pulled, stretched, smacked, cracked and torn apart... by what's inside !
-----
Trek 5200, Specialized Allez Comp Intl., Trek 1200, Corratec Glacier MTB ... and since march 30th a BMC ProMachine Yeeehaaa!!!

I'd have to agree with some of you guys here about Lance Armstrong and Chris Carmichael. I'm not entirely convinced that a higher cadence is the way to go for everyone that CTS has been advocating for a while because two problems, everyone's body is different and training for anything, everyone's body will respond differently, sure, they may be similar in make up, but none will react in exactly the same way with the same results and such. For example, for a while, I was used to doing 90 rpms but then I went on a fixed gear ride yesterday using the same bike but just couldn't change gears in the group ride and I noticed that when I was going at 105-110, everything seemed effortless and then when I changed gears to a lower cadence, it started to seem a little more difficult. My body responded in a way that I didn't expect it to and it seems that everyone's body will respond differently as well so don't try to copy LA's training because his body responds to training in its unique way.

Thomas Davis

I'm considering it....

who's training are you going to copy ?

What do you mean? Are you talking about in terms of cadence or in terms of overall training or what? Be specific.

Thomas Davis

Considering base training in 2.5 hour blocks at a specified cadence.. be it 95, 100, 105 or 110 ? still doing the go figure thing.

To answer this question you should to make some experiments and investigations on trained cyclists.

Ive trained a number of riders and watched alot of other coaches, one thing always stands out, Know your rider. Ive seen 85kg men who can squat emense weights trying to climb at 110 cadance in a small gear "coz Lance does". every single rider on this planet is differant, the trick is to pick what suits you/your rider. IMO pantani is the best climber ever to be...he used an average gear, LA is so close to the best but he uses a tiny gear... JU is so close to LA but he uses a HUGE gear....ever wonder what would happen if Jan tried to climb at 100 cadance? my quess is he would come in with Cippo and Mcgee et al. the funniest thing (and sadest) is watching a guy do what the pro's do when it just doesnt suit them.

I agree. It's hollow thread.
I wonder how many riders trained by CTS use this cadence during endurance miles? And I don't think cadence means here something intersting and new for this workout.

I'm guessing I'd probably do it at 100 rpms or so. I'm only guessing because I can't predict what I'd be comfortable base training at. What's weird is that before I went on the fixed gear ride, I always felt that 110 was uncomfortable but after that? It feels fine.

Thomas Davis

hollow thread ? bit rough, dot

Adaptation.. has to play apart.. train in a specific way.. get better in that way.
You can learn more then one language...
you can train in more then one cadence...
for me at the moment and I appreciate I'm just the average Joe here in terms of cycling performance. I like to climb at 74 cad just out of the saddle or at just under 100 cad in the saddle.... because that's the way I train..
but I’m doing my base rides at 90 cad ? am I missing something ?

Experimenting with cadence in training seems to me to be similar to experimenting with gear ratios..

I don't disagree with any of you generally....... of course all riders are different and yes there is the element of the Pide Piper and rats into the sea thing.

Its just my experience that the obvious is usually what is... and expert advice is only as good as the next set of research findings.....