Cadence and science - This will make the Doc smile.

[francoismodave]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22648142

[doc]

sorry if not surprised , obvious to those who aren't cyclist hypnotized .
but thanks for posting as a dr did the test some may now believe.

[francoismodave]

I actually came to the sport with a cycling background. Raced cat 1 in France where the level was pretty solid.
When switching to tri, I dropped my cadence intuitively. First, no one in triathlon will push 450w for extended periods
of time, and second, one of the reasons cyclists keep a high cadence is not really because it's more efficient, it's to
be able to accelerate. If your cadence is 60rpm and suddenly someone shots to the front, it takes time to get things
moving, a gap opens and you're done, unless you're cancellara...anyhow, yep, you're spot on.

[doc]

thanks you for trying

[lévrier]

low cadence doesn't work for everybody.
My own experience, trying to adopt this method during 4 years
the result :
- a lot af problems of knees
- no increase of my level

this year, come back to a 90/100 tpm, and immediatly new progress..

[Keith Watson]

Levrier, just out of curiosity what racing distance are you focusing on?

[lévrier]

Hello Keith,

i like to race on sprint and olympic distance.

 

[Keith Watson]

Thanks. Generally speaking, the shorter the race the higher the cadence. The longer the race, the lower the cadence.

What higher and lower mean is individual. There is no magic fixed number however. It all depends on you. My 40 might be your 60 and I may race at 85 for an Oly and you at 95.

The key is to find your optimal race cadence (specific to the distance) and then you do a bunch of work at that cadence, below that cadence and above that cadence depending on the sessions and the day.

Just remember that it's more about the mix that makes it work and not the specific number.

[lévrier]

thanks a lot !