You are the engine of your bicycle. You pedal to power the movement in
your wheels. you need to maximize the efficiency of your pedal stroke (how far you can travel on your leg strength and endurance). Refueling your body’s engine isn’t as easy as refueling your car’s engine.
Spinning is to cycling what cruise control is to driving. The rate at which
you spin, or rotate your pedals, determines how much fuel you burn. Ideally,
you’ll spin your pedals between 80 to 100 revolutions per minute (rpm), with
a preferred cadence of 90 rpm. A revolution is one complete circle, and the
number of revolutions per minute is called your cadence.
In the 80- to 100-rpm range, your body works at the most aerobically efficient
rate and can continue for extended periods of time without burning quickly
through all its fuel.
Many beginning cyclists believe they go faster if they “mash” on their pedals
in a high gear and a low rpm, meaning their legs push hard on the pedals and
move more slowly around than 80 to 100 rpm. Sure, you’ll go fast, but not
for long. Constantly pedaling in a high gear puts strain on your knees and
requires more of an up-and-down piston-like motion than a smooth circle. All
this will cause you to wear out quickly. Professional bike racers in the Tour de
France operate within a 90- to 100-rpm cadence range for 23 days every July. If
it works for them, it’ll work for you, too.
But I like to spin at
But I like to spin at 100-105 is that a bad thing?
Just kidding, I think spinning at 90 - 100 is perfectly fine, but if you watch the TDF you will see that at different points on the courses the riders are pumping anywhere from 60 all the way to 100. It really depends on the exact situation. I believe in a high cadence hence my first statement. However there are times (climbing) that you may not be able to sustain that cadence.
Just playing devils advocate for a minute.
It is so individual. Look
It is so individual. Look at Jan Ullrich, he rarely goes/went above 80rpms and he was a bit quicker than me! Definitely need to break the mashing, but using power combined with heart rate might help you figure out your ideal efficient cadence.
Finally got off the trainer
Finally got off the trainer & onto the road this week (hooray for maple syrup weather!)
During my winter confinement I worked on some single leg pedalling drills - try it if you haven't; I've always thought of myself as a cyclist first, but could barely manage 1 minute/leg before I'd have to switch off due to waning technique! As well, a tip my fitter gave me was to imagine pushing your top foot forward toward the front axle while pulling your bottom foot back toward the rear axle... this to address the dead spots we experience when we aren't using the 360 degs. of force available.
Wow - more tiring, more oxygen used up, but more speed immediately! Enough that I'm needing different gears. Bring on the season!
it is very individual. If
it is very individual. If you can find a way to use a computrainer you can have it analyze your pedal stroke for the places that you are weaker. This is a great tool to see where you need to work. However, what you're looking to do is find your balance of VO2 (uptake) and workload (power output aka watts). Because VO2 is very hard for most of us to measure you can sub HR and RPE (relative perceived effort). It all depends on how analytical you want to be.