# So...what's my optimal cadence?



## brady1 (Aug 18, 2011)

I know everyone will eventually zero in on their ideal cadence but I think I may have defaulted to a too high cadence.

Here's what happened... I've been doing a lot of riding indoors lately and just finished a block of a lot of tempo work at a cadence around 75-80. Quite a bit lower than my normal cadence...

Earlier in the week, I did a LT interval at my self-selected cadence which ended up being an average of 94.

All this was done on the trainer which functions as my poor man's power meter for the time being. 

I noticed during my tempo intervals I went about 1 mph faster and my HR was around 20 beats lower. Furthermore, I was absolutely wiped after my 20 min LT interval where I was up to 90 minutes on the tempo interval and felt like I probably could have gone longer if I had to. 

So I was wondering if I should try to lower my default TT cadence to around 90 and try to push a slightly higher gear. Does this make sense?

Just looking for more power at a lower heart rate. (Aren't we all?...)


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## Ghost234 (Jun 1, 2010)

if you are forcing yourself to push a higher cadence than your body is used to - you will have a drop in power (and speed as a result). If however, it feels comfortable/natural to you than it doesn't make a difference. 

The speed changes in the trainer could be the result of the trainer warming up, tire pressure, your own body functions (dehydration, sleep deprivation can raise RPE), etc. I wouldn't dwell on it. 

For riding the trainer feel free to use whatever cadence feels right to you. Typically I ride with a cadence of about 85rpm on the trainer, but outside it is usually about 10 rpm faster. There is no optimal cadence, however there is a belief that riding at 100~ rpm is ideal as most (all?) of the hour records have been set with a cadence slightly over 100. Additionally if you race, a higher cadence will allow you to respond to attacks without having to shift. This could be beneficial. Long story short, find what works for you and stick to it - what we do on the trainer doesnt always 100% translate to on the road riding.


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## brady1 (Aug 18, 2011)

Thanks for the reply. 

I tried to keep the warm up, preparation, etc. all the same between these efforts. I was wondering how much of this actually did transfer to the road...that was where I first noticed this difference in cadence/output.

Even on some of my regular training routes I noticed a shorter time and lower heart rate while I was doing the blocks of tempo training at around 75-80rpm. Being a smaller rider, I routinely spin at 95+. My thought was that if I can train my body to push a slightly bigger gear, around 85-90rpm, that might be a little more efficient. I was thinking that just spinning high rpms, regardless of gearing, bumps up the heart rate enough to make 85-90 rpms seem more economical. Something I noticed on the road this past summer. 

During group rides, I felt fine at my normal cadence but felt like I was spinning like a hummingbird trying to keep up on the flats with some of the big guys as I struggled to push a bigger gear at the time.

That's what I've been working on lately and how I came back to thinking (over-thinking?) this cadence thing.


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## metoou2 (Mar 18, 2009)

Feel the force


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## woodys737 (Dec 31, 2005)

From my POV which may be incorrect there is no optimal cadence more an optimal range. I only state this because when on the rivet trying to produce high power for sustained periods of time longer than say 10 minutes, staying "on top" of the gear inevitably happens to me. When I feel like I'm getting slightly bogged down I shift up a cog and spin a bit faster, recover and shift down again. When I do this power inevitably varies slightly but overall I'm able to keep the average power higher doing this. To be honest I think there is much more to it as I believe I'm actually using slightly different muscle groups and kind of switching back and forth but you get the idea.

Anyhoo, unless you have a power meter I think you're over thinking it. Not that you wouldn't be over thinking it with a power meter just that w/o that data it seems like a relatively unimportant concern. Power is the direct indication of what's going on and HR is indirect. Cadence is a function of what is happening with either of those not the other way around. Focus on your LTHR, notice cadence, put more effort in, observe HR, observe cadence and adjust as necessary to keep LTHR high. What's crazy is you can way over do it with respect to HR (go into the red) and show a super high HR but have super low power. That's why power is so valuable for pacing. You know directly when you have reached your limit. With HR it can take more trial and error to understand where your LTHR is...hope this helps.


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## spade2you (May 12, 2009)

Brady, if you would have asked 2 years ago, UNO was doing a study, although the outcome of the study is fairly limited. They concluded 60rpm at a low steady state effort was metabolically the most efficient. Since the pace was much lower than that of a bike race, I didn't draw much on it.

Ideal cadence for what?? I've found for really long steady TT efforts, I do better at slightly lower cadence when I look at power output and HR. My muscles feel a lot more taxed at the lower cadence when I'm done, so I don't tend to do this during a stage race if I have to race again in a few hours. For road, crit racing, or a TT with a lot of shorter efforts, I'll stick with my higher cadence.


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