Cadence and resistance

m3trackboy

How can i tell when I'm at an optimum cadence / power output for me?
Is it a relationship between how long i can pedal at that cadence vs heart rate. I assume it's different for all riders, i don't want to buy a power meter yet, but i do have a Garmin 810 with cadence sensor so I'm sure there is enough info to work out a comfortable cadence / resistance.

Hopefully this makes sense!

shirley_basso

Cadence should typically be in the 80-90 range (ignore what milemuncher says if he turns up). HR should then be related to how hard you're working. If you know your resting rate and max rate (various ways to do this) then you can set some rough zones in between.

So if cadence is roughly fixed and you have a target HR zone then you can choose a gear to match.

Cadence on its own doesn't really tell you much unless you are a beginner and learning to feel what is comfortable for you. Certainly when I started riding I had a very low cadence but have increased now. HR is a better metric for effort.

With respect, it sounds like you've got the terms a bit muddled.
Power / effort is 100% unique to each individual rider. Someone more experienced can probably produce more power for longer at a lower HR than a beginner. Resistance is simply the choice of gear you decide to select and will depend on a myriad of factors (wind, gradient, fatigue, effort, speed etc)

Buy an HR monitor and use that to gauge efforts, but if you're starting out then just enjoy, find what's comfortable, what makes you want to collapse in a heap and go from there.

keef66

Cadence is a personal thing. You could have 2 identical riders climbing a hill at the same speed, one spinning faster in a low gear, the other slower in a higher gear. They'd both be putting out the same power.

If you want to find your cadence sweet spot without a power meter, climb the same hill at the same HR but in different gears.

One thing that helped me in terms of power was getting the saddle height spot on at the fitting; amazing the difference a few mm can make.

Over the years my cadence has increased progressively. I used to push bigger gears when I was young*, now I prefer to constantly change gear to keep a cadence of around 90** which is kinder to my ageing knees.

*I had to; back then you had a 52/42 chainset and a 5 speed block
**I say around 90; I've never measured it properly but I'm good at estimating stuff.

drlodge

Cadence of 90 is a good estimate for normal riding, it'll go up downhill and be lower when climbing.

I'm like keef66, no longer a youngster and like to keep changing gears so that my cadence remains highish, I hate grinding.

fenix

If you watch any charity bike rides you'll see beginners and non cyclists riding about 60rpm.

Anyone who carries on cycling will usually get faster at pedalling and gravitate towards 85 rpm or so.

Just choose the gear to get your cadence up to that kind of level. That's all you need.

m3trackboy

Thanks for the reply's
SB you have told me exactly what I wanted to know.

Many thanks

ManiaMuse

m3trackboy wrote:

How can i tell when I'm at an optimum cadence / power output for me?
Is it a relationship between how long i can pedal at that cadence vs heart rate. I assume it's different for all riders, i don't want to buy a power meter yet, but i do have a Garmin 810 with cadence sensor so I'm sure there is enough info to work out a comfortable cadence / resistance.

Hopefully this makes sense!

At a given speed you are doing the same amount of work no matter what gear you are using, it's just different parts of your body doing the work. If you are pushing a big gear (i.e. requires a lot of effort to move) then it is your leg muscles doing most of the work. If you use a smaller gear then it becomes easier to move the pedals round but you have to do it more often and it becomes more of an aerobic activity. However unless you are riding a fixed gear bike or you are riding up a really steep hill and have run out of smaller gears, then it doesn't really matter, that's what gears are there for.

I would forget about heart rate monitors and cadence/power meters. Just play around with using different gears. At very high cadences in small gears you will probably start bouncing out of the saddle which is wasted effort and you won't be able to reach max effort. However you can probably increase your comfortable highest cadence if you make a conscious effort to use smaller gears and get used to it. Low cadences/high gears will be more of a strain on your legs and knees and might start to play on your strength endurance. However cycling (apart from maybe track sprinting) isn't really a strength sport like say weightlifting and shouldn't really be an issue. At max effort it doesn't matter what gear you are using (assuming it isn't ridiculously small or large), you should peak at the same power output and speed and the length of time you can sustain that for.

Have a look at other cyclists on the roads and see what they do. You will probably see a lot of them who are heaving a big gear and swaying their bike side to side every pedal stroke. It's less likely that you'll see people bouncing out of their saddle in a really small gear as that feels more unnatural and is harder to sustain. But you can get to quite high cadences before that starts to happen.

davebradswmb

There is an interesting workout on Trainerroad where over the course of a 10 minute block they have you reduce your power by (I think) 5% every minute, and at the same time increase your cadence. Half way through it reverses, so you end up at the end of the block with the same power and cadence that you started with.

At least in my case, when I looked at the graph of HR verses power the HR increased towards the middle of the block and then decreased towards the end. I expect that this will be common to most people that do this workout, and is the reason why they designed it that way.

The lesson is that HR is not a great measure of how hard you are working, and a lower HR is not necessarily better. If you pedal at a lower cadence your leg muscles will be working harder and will tire more quickly.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Since getting my 4iiii ~1 month ago, I've drastically changed my cadence from ~100 to ~75rpm when I want to maximise power (for me up climbs, especially categorized ones).

However, when my legs are dead (like they were heading back from Warren Lane north of Petersfield this afternoon, ~24 miles from home), I resort to my old style of spinning at ~95+ as this reduces strain on my legs... At much lower power output.

surfercyclist

I find the two most useful metrics for me when riding are cadence and HR. I don't have a power meter but would assume that be very good also. I aim to keep my cadence around 85 and over most rides I do average around that figure. I use HR for when climbing to ensure I don't blow up too soon. I select my gears pretty much entirely on my cadence and find it really helps my riding.

sloppyschleckonds

SurferCyclist wrote:

I find the two most useful metrics for me when riding are cadence and HR.

For the first 20 years of riding I never paid any attention to either

sloppyschleckonds

davebradswmb wrote:

There is an interesting workout on Trainerroad

There is nothing interesting about Trainerroad or turbo trainers.
Best advise on this thread from ManiaMuse

surfercyclist

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

SurferCyclist wrote:

I find the two most useful metrics for me when riding are cadence and HR.

For the first 20 years of riding I never paid any attention to either

So now, finally, you realise they are useful. Still, better late then never....