Hello,
I’ve noticed in some of the sessions, it asked me to stand in the high cadence that feels not natural to me. I usually can keep the cadence, but while sitting. So for the minions who designed this, which one that is more important for me to follow: cadence (while sitting) or ride position (with lower cadence than prescribed)?
I’m in the same boat. I say stand as the workout is targeting different muscles. Get as close a cadence as you can comfortably achieve. I’ve been ridding for about 14 years and 12 of those years were mainly seated so standing is a major weakness in my riding. Unfortunately, I took to heart the Armstrong style of high cadence pedaling, which is not a bad idea, but to be a balanced rider you need to stand. On a long climb if I stood on the pedals to change up my position for a few seconds I would end up burning out since those muscles were rarely used. Not the best strategy. I’m not a coach , but those are my 2¢
I would agree with that, just try to get as close to the cadence as you can.
I feel that there’s different ways to ride out of the saddle with the Mike Cotty style (G.O.A.T.) on one end of the spectrum (where you transfer your weight between the pedals and ‘dance’ your way up a hill at relatively low cadence) and the Caleb Ewan style on the other end of the spectrum (where you put your chin on the stem, keep your upper body pretty much in one place and motor the pedals round at silly high cadence).
Best to practise on a fixed trainer than the open road…
I always stand and attempt to get close to the cadence but sometimes I just don’t get there (nor do I feel I need to). That said, I just discovered that it is much easier for me to have a higher cadence while standing if I move my hands into the drops… you might try it and see if you have the same experience. I put a slightly swept Easton gravel bar on my KICKR bike though, so getting in the drops is perhaps easier than for some others.
Stand, the cadence will come with practise.
Yeah. Agree that in some workouts, the high cadence standing seems wack. Like JGreengrass, I prioritize standing over cadence, and do strive to get my cadence higher. Higher cadence increases the intensity so is part of the intended training load. As mentioned, there’s standing for longer periods at slow cadence while climbing, and standing at high cadence while sprinting…and then there’s standing just to give my butt a break on longer workouts, which I’ll do despite standing not being indicated in the workout. Agree the drops help at high cadences. A find that a full motion platform that permits the bike to move fore/aft under you while standing helps quite a bit too.
Yeah, another vote for standing being the priority, just try to get your cadence up a bit.
I’m more the slower style while standing too, but one thing that really helped me up my cadence while standing (especially when tired) was concentrating on lifting up my back leg.
I think before I was concentrating so much on pushing down on the front of the stroke when standing, that my back leg moving up was going dead/resting, working against my front leg. This resulted in too much of the power from my front leg driving down going towards pushing up my back leg instead of all going to driving the bike forward. I then figured the front leg going down would take care of itself, and once I started focusing on lifting up my back leg I was able to up my standing cadence significantly.
Standing is definitely something that comes in practice at any cadence.
When I started The Sufferfest I had a hard time standing for more than 5 seconds at any cadence. I’m now able to comfortably stand and multiple cadences - tho standing at lower cadences is definitely easier, or at least more natural.
While riding Defender there are multiple times where Quintana or Contador get out of the saddle and their cadence is still 85rpms+. So, standing at those cadences isn’t exactly unheard of. But it does take more practice to be able to do. Especially for us mere mortals.
Indeed. I will try to stand as much as possible to follow the instructions from now on. I think it will come in handy in the future!
Last week, I rode Power Stations out of the saddle during each wall (good candidate because cadence is doable). Tough, but good to know that morning planks help after all 
. Once you’re used to it, it also helps on climbs outdoor, so I would definitely focus on standing.