I don’t understand the usefulness of NM exercises in one specific training block. Let’s say you do 3 different training blocks. Each are 3 hard weeks + 1 easy, so 4 weeks.
You do one AC/NM block, which should cause “neuromuscular adaptations”. In total you do what, 8 of those trainings (cadence drills) and the others are AC, in such a block? And then you spend months doing MAP/FTP/Threshold… stuff. How much of that neuromuscular adaptation sticks around if you don’t train it all the time?
Seems to me that those cadence drills you do a couple of times for a few weeks are a complete waste of time IMO.
Hmmm. Waiting for all the sport scientist and their ilk to weigh in here.
My guess is it depends what your training/event/race/discipline goals are. Also, the other blocks usually have some NM drills built into them at some point over the course of a 3:1 period so it’s not like you’re not training it at all during those times.
I never encounter any cadence drills in other workouts.
On a different note: what’s the use of cadence drills on a Wahoo Kickr if the thing can’t register my cadence once I go over 170rpm? I know I pedal a lot faster, but the thing just shows me “1” on the screen as soon as I pass 170.
The drills aren’t in other workouts though there’s the Hobart ride with Nicole Frain and there’s one with Sir Michael Cotty though I can’t recall which. I was saying they’re in other training blocks like the MAP block etc
As for the drills on the Kickr, I use a separate cadence sensor that registers over 200 rpm but I only use it for the drills. Otherwise I just use the Kickr cadence which is an estimate and does a good job as long as it’s a reasonable cadence.
To Get To The Other Side, Sir
, I don’t recall cadence drills on that one though. I thought it was one of the OL rides.
I might be wrong. It coulda just been the nice variety in some of those vids.
The final 5 minutes or so of TGTTOS are cadence drills. Then there’s some in Elements of Style, of course.
The OL one is Gorges de la Nesque, I think (although I haven’t done them all, yet).
Anyway, your general point stands.
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Doh, yes!! TGTTOS plus the best acting anywhere. 
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There’s even cadence increases (drills may be a bit strong) in Getting Away With It.
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In several The Knowledge podcast episodes, the team talks about the benefits of max cadence drills. You get all the benefit from doing effort to the max of your ability regardless of whether the KICKR can measure it or not.
After a couple weeks of doing consistent cadence drills only I can observe my max sprint power going up. And I’m stuck on a KICKR BIKE which physically limits max cadence to 130 (it jacks up the resistance to impossible levels to prevent you from going higher). If I took these drills to the road where I could go higher perhaps I could finally get over the 1000W barrier…
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So…I came from an athletics sprint background (60m to 400m) quite naturally I sought out the NM sessions thinking it might replicate what I “knew”.
What I know now is that cycling isn’t running and that sprinting on a bike is very different…more power…actually slower rpm…I often ‘outpace’ targets by revving too fast (Up to the 180s…I’m on a wattbike atom so don’t have the 130 drop out problem)
Previously as part of our training we might hit the wattbikes to maintain speed during injury periods or for something different …often would pass 1000 watts (I’m old…the younger guys would be closer to 2k …and we had one girl who was soo good she went to British Cycling (Track) …since retiring from athletics and starting on the bike …I’m lucky if I hit 850…so in relation to your initial question regarding adaptation…one 3 week period ain’t gonna do it…even the occasional cadence drills in rest week is not ideal if you’re looking at big numbers (like a sprinter) but as part of the overall picture…the drills are about tickling the fast twitch fibres so that all the other work can be utilised in the last 100m of your 100 miles race.
It’s frustrating from my ego point of view…but cycling ain’t running. 
Speaking for myself, as an enthusiast, not an expert. I have done cadence drills or NM focused sessions in various workouts (as listed above), but haven’t specifically targeted NM recently. Most of the work was done 5 or so months ago, with bits thrown in here and there. I have been surprised at how easy I now find it to lift my cadence to above 160 rpm (before, 120 was a struggle). So I’m going to say that the NM adaptation does seem to stick around.
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