Recovery ride - cadence...

SMAC19

Just wondering what cadence I should ride recovery.

On training rides I keep my cadence at about 95 (80 on hills). I always do recovery rides, soft pedalling, on the turbo but I'm not sure what cadence to stick at, fast or slow?

Thanks in advance
Phil

imposter2.0

Recovery rides are not about cadence - they are about effort (or in this case, lack of it). Ride at whatever cadence you prefer.

SMAC19

Thanks mate.

I can easily ride on the turbo at about 80 rpm keeping my HR at about 50%, just didn't know if pedalling closer to training cadence would be more or less beneficial.

Grill

Imposter wrote:

Recovery rides are not about cadence - they are about effort (or in this case, lack of it). Ride at whatever cadence you prefer.

This. Just remember- glass cranks.

bernithebiker

Grill wrote:

Imposter wrote:

Recovery rides are not about cadence - they are about effort (or in this case, lack of it). Ride at whatever cadence you prefer.

This. Just remember- glass cranks.

Glass cranks - not heard that before - like it!

As for cadence on recovery, I tend to keep the cadence high-ish for the majority of the ride just to keep from any muscle strain.

(An elite rider that rides with our group sometimes does this too, so if it works for him.....!)

BigFatBloke

Imposter wrote:

Recovery rides are not about cadence - they are about effort (or in this case, lack of it). Ride at whatever cadence you prefer.

Yes you want to keep the effort down and thus the power down but on a recovery ride you also want to keep the force down. The best way to do that is use your gears and choose a higher cadence up any slopes or hills.

It is possible to keep power down to 50% of FTP but still be putting high forces down up hill in too big a gear and you want to avoid high force so the best way to keep effort, power and force down is choose a higher cadence.