This is my first post, so sorry if it is not fully compliant to the rules.
I ride 10k km per year mainly with the road bike and I use TheSufferfest for training during the winter season.
Now I’m doing mountainous/hilly gran fondo training plan, but I always face a lot of difficulties to complete sessions at high cadence: for me The Omnium is impossible to complete at 100%, but for example I can complete The Way Out or The Bat at 110% ftp.
It is impossible to hold cadence of more than 110 rpm for more than a few seconds, otherwise I have to give up and slow down and recover.
I find high cadence unnatural and during outdoor rides I never pedal at more than 105 rpm for a long period of time.
So which is the reason to have such a high cadence into sessions?
Welcome - here is an article that you might find helpful on the topic of cadence. Also try the cadence build workouts to help you with building and maintaining a higher cadence. I was in a similar spot with respect to cadence and I found the drills really assisted me to increase and maintain my cadence. Good luck!
Thank you I’ll read it.
The strange thing is that I find easy Cadence Builds, where I reach more than 140 without any problem.
But in this session it is a matter of 20-30” and than you have a lot of time to recover.
I have a kickr Bike and it physically won’t let me go above 130rpm in the cadence builds. As I get to 130, it increases the watts to keep me from going above 130rpm. While I was trying to figure it out, I spoke to a a really knowledgeable person in the local bike shop. They said that cadence over 130 is dangerous on the road - at that speed you have your head down and you don’t have control of the bike. It’s a safety feature on the Kickr bike.
His advice was to hit 130 and stay there, and not worry too much about it.
I hear of others hitting 200rpm which I can’t imagine doing, but I end up doing 130rpm and hitting 800/900w for 30 seconds which is a killer. I could just slow down and hit the 130rpm number and keep power to a manageable level. But 130rpm/800w for 30 seconds while sitting is hard (for me).
This doesn’t answer your question, but I guess my point is that high cadence has diminishing returns above a certain point. The question is whether or not 130 is high enough for you.
Hi @azrogm ,
I agree that high cadence efforts can be more difficult than the power alone suggests, and that’s also what is stated in the article @JSampson shared.
Everyone has a natural cadence they are comfortable at, and that will vary from rider to rider. It seems like the sessions are set up to cater for most riders, with cadences typically in the 80-100 range for most intervals. I haven’t done Omnium for a while, but I suspect that they may have put higher cadence targets in there as it is based of a track cycling event, and track riders typically can spin at higher cadences than most given that they only have one gear to work with.
If you’re finding that the cadence targets make the workout unachievable, then I think it is fine to reduce them to a cadence that works better for you. At the same time, work on the cadence drills, which should, over time, increase the cadence that you’re able to sustain. I also find, especially in workouts like Cadence Builds and Cadence Builds And Holds, that I warm up into high cadence efforts - the first interval I can barely hit 115 rpm, but by the end, I’m able to reach 150 in the builds and sustain 130 for the holds.
What the expert said is correct.
On the road above 110 rpm at high power it is very difficult to ride in straight line and, except for sprints, you never reach such a high cadence