Endurance cadence



My optimum endurance cadence is:

  • 70 rpm

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 80 rpm

    Votes: 20 3.7%
  • 90 rpm

    Votes: 116 21.5%
  • 100 rpm

    Votes: 298 55.3%
  • 110 rpm

    Votes: 105 19.5%

  • Total voters
    539
Originally posted by cheveley
....
Would I be wrong in saying before Lance Armstrong "the art of spinning" was not topical. Wait till a slow cadence rider (Ulrich?) wins a few TDF's then spinning wont be so vogue.

Actually it was used by a number of riders way before Armstrong entered the scene (e.g. Van Impe). Even Indurain used a quite high cadence. Indeed as some others suggested, higher cadences are better for those riders with very high aerobic capacities. Tapping into this 'aerobic reservoir' would prevent fatigue from setting in. Very useful in the Tour I would say ;)

Niek
 
Originally posted by sheppard
Carmichael has Lance training at such a high cadence in order to utilize his unbelievable "aerobic machine," as opposed to leg strength.


Exactly. Reducing the gearing and increasing the cadence decreases the power per pedal stroke required to maintain that power level. It shifts the stress from the legs to the cardiovascular system.
 
Originally posted by Harrow
My optimum endurance cadence is...

Anything from 65-95 depending on what the road/wind/gear is like. Sometimes I manage 100+ but it's rare. Straight flattish road without a headwind and I can power along in a bigger gear at about 75, tend to still pedal on the far side of a hill to work the ick out of the legs, so that'd be about 50-60, but spend most of my time when I'm putting in some effort at 80-90.

Usually manage something in the order of 40-50 miles over not very challenging terrain (for most people, it's definitely challenging for me) with those cadences, at an average of 10 miles and hour, though that includes brief stops, so I tend to see speeds of around 14mph most of the time along the flatter sections.
 
Memphmann said:
Hello:

Since I use to race JR. and we had a gear limit. We were forced to spin faster in order to go faster. At times can remember spinning as fast as 130-140 for short distances. So even now, I look for smaller gear to spin faster...

Memph
me too, i usually get to spin occassionally at around 130-141 on my mtb over shorter distances. 49x17 - 35mph > with a cadenance of 141, don't get me wrong it soon gets dropped to a larger gear.. Since it hurts, OUCH!;)
 
I'm 6"3_ 240 lbs and I find myself most efficient between 90 and 100_ This maybe different for smaller riders. I have been riding for 4 years now, the first year I was told to spin but I would get tired half way thru the long rides.
Second year I tried to push a big gear all the time and would get
weak legs half way thru. Took one year off because of surgery and now I am

learning to balance it more by working on both strength and cadence.
 
black velvet said:
I'm 6"3_ 240 lbs and I find myself most efficient between 90 and 100_ This maybe different for smaller riders. I have been riding for 4 years now, the first year I was told to spin but I would get tired half way thru the long rides.
Second year I tried to push a big gear all the time and would get
weak legs half way thru. Took one year off because of surgery and now I am

learning to balance it more by working on both strength and cadence.
thats similar to what i'm doing at the minute, i am spinning a gear for a good 1000m then once i pass 24-25mph, i try to drop to the larger rind and begin my one legged intervals, as long as possible 2-3 minutes per leg, as i tire i Stomp the pedal for a further 2 minutes for so each leg (stamp on) then i'll resume spinning just to get the life back into my legs, then i resume spinning for a period of time. then i have perticular parts where doesn't matter what i was doing, this is where i do my sprints, which i find quite difficult at the times i ride since traffic only travels at 30 or less and they get in the way.
 
sheppard said:
Carmichael has Lance training at such a high cadence in order to utilize his unbelievable "aerobic machine," as opposed to leg strength. Pedaling at such high cadences also forces the rider to make corrections in pedaling efficiency: you just can't pedal that fast without having a smooth spin and the higher numbers force you to make the minor adjustments to acquire such a spin. Once you're in the realm of spin adjustment, you've probably already taken several years to raise your lactate threshold and get your weight down. The elites are looking for those last couple % in increased power output, so they have to do things like increase efficiency of their strokes. Must be nice, eh? Best of luck.
53x14/15 i use to accellerate, i usually accellerate over 500m-1000m with around 110 rpms, (although i have accellerated to over 35mph on 44x15 which gave me a cadence of 170 which pretty much burned like hell) 53x15 i drop to the larger gears and i'll quite happily stomp the 53x12 for miles, i find however riding the 53x13 more efficient since i still have a larger gear to mash out on. i find the larger gears more pleasant to ride.
 
I found this summer that starting out rides at 100 to 105 I tire out at around 40 to 50 mi. If I stay at 90 to 100 I can ride the longest I've done this year (around 65 mi) and still be wanting more at the end. So, I stay between 90 and 100 with bursts of up to about 110 when I'm chasing.

SS
 
I've found that my optimum cadence is about 100-105 rpm which has moved up from just 2 months ago when I found 90 rpm better.
 
One gets more efficient at what ever cadence one trains at. That doesn't mean that the cadence you're most efficient at now is the best cadence for you in terms of best power-over-time production.

The common belief, please correct me if you think I'm wrong, is that big strong bods mash heavy gears at slower cadence and bods with high VO 2 max spin lighter gears fast

I took a wild guess and figured 96 was a good cadence for me.... it just felt good, I push the biggest gear I can at that cadence, after about an hour I'm nicely spent.

At lower effort levels I could sustain this cadence hours on end :p
 
Been working on increasing cadence over the last couple of months, as I had always been something of a masher. I now find that for longer rides that I will hover in a range between 90 and 95 - not particularly high compared to alot of you in this thread (unless you look at the poll results), but then my starting point was about 70 to 75 (and which now feels completely "wrong").
 
Gilders said:
Been working on increasing cadence over the last couple of months, as I had always been something of a masher. I now find that for longer rides that I will hover in a range between 90 and 95 - not particularly high compared to alot of you in this thread (unless you look at the poll results), but then my starting point was about 70 to 75 (and which now feels completely "wrong").
Spinning is best on a fixie, since it removes the desire to change to a larger gear and slower cadence?
 
I've always been an 84 rpm rider, but this year I've worked on technique more, and have gotten myself up to 90 rpm for most of my riding. I'll still drop to 70 if I'm dogging it, though.
 
high cadence is easy on the leg muscles.

make sure you have a strong 'core' for high cadence long distance rides otherwise you will start to 'bob/rock' in the saddle which is not efficient.
 
Bit of a newbie here, been ridding about 8 months. Just started to up my cadence to 85/95 and finding that I am reaching much higher average road speeds, which is great.



But I do have a problem, after about an hour of ridding at this cadence; I find that I am often getting cramp in my calf muscles.



Any ideas why this is happening and how to train to best avoid it, as it sure does hurt. :confused:
 
Tri-Dude said:
Bit of a newbie here, been ridding about 8 months. Just started to up my cadence to 85/95 and finding that I am reaching much higher average road speeds, which is great.



But I do have a problem, after about an hour of ridding at this cadence; I find that I am often getting cramp in my calf muscles.



Any ideas why this is happening and how to train to best avoid it, as it sure does hurt. :confused:

cramping is usually associated with electrolyte imbalance within the muscle. best thing is to ensure you are well hydrated. Just taking in water during a ride may not be enough if weather hot, try "Endura" see if that fixes it.
train for longer periods at lesser effort and mix it with short interval work at high intensity. lot of advice re this topic on this forum. go search
 
edd said:
cramping is usually associated with electrolyte imbalance within the muscle. best thing is to ensure you are well hydrated. Just taking in water during a ride may not be enough if weather hot, try "Endura" see if that fixes it.
train for longer periods at lesser effort and mix it with short interval work at high intensity. lot of advice re this topic on this forum. go search
just continue what your doing, but add an electrolyte replacement sachette to your usual fluid that you take, i like to use dioralite on longer rides, helps replace ALL lost electrolytes, makes me feel better during longer rides, and seems to have me back on top form within minutes of drinking.
 
Are you guys talking average cadence over a ride (flat and hills) or just what you see on your readout and feel comfortable with?

I've recently been making a concerted effort to up cadence and have gone from an average in mid high 80's to an average of 93 which seems to be a point I can't get beyond. Over the course of a ride though I'll go from 100-105 along flats to obviously (given average) working hard to maintain 90 on hills.

Of course averages include stops/starts gear changes etc on rides. I feel my average should be higher than 93, but that's what the cxomputer tells me.
 

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