Ssushi said:
I've completed a good period of base training since coming back from some knee injuries but have noticed now that if i ride at 80%MHR my quads feel the pain, while my cardio system is fine. I'm guessing that my cardio exceeds my muscle power.
it's unlikely that your "cardio exceeds your muscle power". most males who are healthy and of average size can generate in excess of 800 W, and many can exceed 1000 W. I would suspect that you could do this.
on the other hand riding at 80% HRmax could be anywhere from about 100 to 300 W depending on your size and fitness.
Your legs are likely to feel pain as you aren't conditioned enough to ride at the intensity you are trying to ride at.
So now I'm trying to lower my cadence from about 85 to about 75 so as to push harder gears and hopefully develop the missing power.
this would not develop power, but would require you to generate more force to ride at a given power. this is unlikely to be of any benefit (other than e.g., riding a hill at lower than normal cadence because you don't have a low enough gear. however, that should be specifically done while riding hills and not by trying to ride at a low cadence).
Does this approach seem logical?
I do have to be careful about my knees still but need that power...
Cheers
Ssushi
you should continue to ride at a 'normal' cadence range (e.g., 85 - 100 revs/min) on the flat, and endeavour to ride at higher intensities for brief periods of time and gradually increase the time that you can ride at those intensities (e.g., at 80 % HRmax).
you should also ascertain that you know exactly what your HRmax is, and not use a formula such as 220-age to approximate it, and also be aware that it is sensitive to changes in fitness (it decreases as you get fitter).
Ric
