Endurance Cadence Cycling Training Guide 2022
What Is The Best Cadence For Cycling?
In Episode 1 of Fast Dad Friday’s I explore an aspect of training that I had been overlooking for the better part of 10 years, and that’s cadence training for cycling. I have always been a lower cadence rider, and figured self selected cadence for every intensity was the right way to go. Inadvertently, my bike cadence has been dropping the past few years.
After doing a few really hard zwift races where I got dropped, more than once, I felt strongly I had to take a hard look and make some changes to my training approach. I wasn’t able get the power into the pedals on the trainer like I could outside when standing and smashing up a climb. I love to click down to a big gear and just dig into the bike rocking it side to side using a TON of force in the 70-85rpm range and historically this is how i generate most of my power at every sustained intensity. This got me thinking, all of this force isn’t being generated by aerobic type 1 fibers, it’s way more type 2 fast twitch. Could I target these aerobic fibers better?
Would trying specifically to improve here help my riding? Turns out the answer is YES!
I’ve always use the long endurance ride as the cornerstone of my fitness program. Why? Because as you stay on the gas for 3 4 5, or 6 hours, your less efficient fibers wear out and fatigue, leaving you with just your slow twitch Type 1 fibers to get the job done and keep the power up. I can’t do this as full time Dad these days. There’s no substitute for miles, but by paying close attention to cadence on shorter endurance rides, you can use overspeed work as a relatively good substitute.
I’ve done cadence workouts yearly since I started riding, but it’s usually in the Base period, and I only do these workouts for 8-12 weeks. Tractor pulls, Overspeed Sprints, Overspeed surges for 1’, etc. You get the idea. Doing these workouts is good for accelerating and being able to turn the legs over quickly in a sprint, but weren’t useful for me at all to pick up my general cadence. This scientific study showed that a slower cadence is actually more efficient than a fast cadence. The reason this is the best cadence for cycling here is at slower leg speed, you can use the greatest combination of muscle fibers. Type 1, and Type 2a and 2b fibers. all of your motor units play a roll in producing power when going Full Gas, even at longer durations and lower cadence is still my choice for intensity days. Workouts, Races, Group Hammers.
The bottom line is, self selecting cadence is going to be best for maximal efforts and for sustained power research points to lower cadence being more efficient.
Slower, self selected leg speed is more ideal for racing, and workouts. In this Zwift Tour for All race on 5/28/2020, I stood for almost the entire climb here averaging only 71rpm. My average for the entire race was only 74!
Slower, self selected leg speed is more ideal for racing, and workouts. In this Zwift Tour for All race on 5/28/2020, I stood for almost the entire climb here averaging only 71rpm. My average for the entire race was only 74!
See Also: Best Anaerobic Bike Workouts for Cycling
What Is Cadence In Cycling?
Simply, your cadence is the rate at which you turn the pedals over, this is measured in rotations per minute (RPM). The faster you pedal, the higher your cadence will be. How can you measure your cadence? Almost every power meter on the market tracks your cadence, however, you can also purchase a cadence sensor that will transmit to your head unit. Tracking your cadence is a great way to identify tendencies and trends while riding that can help improve your performance.
Cadence Training For Cycling
Start with intervals until you are used to riding for 1 hour at 100-105 RPM
I did this sort of a progression:
6x 6’ ON, Fast cadence 100-115rpm, 4’ self selected cadence (72-75% FTP the whole time)
6x7’ ON, Fast cadence 100-115rpm, 3’ self selected cadence(72-75% FTP the whole time)
8x8’ ON, Fast cadence 100-115rpm, 2’ self selected cadence(72-75% FTP the whole time)
Related Post: Endurance Riding for the Time Crunched Athlete
HACK ALERT! Using ERG mode on a Smart Trainer
The other tool I used during the winter to get used to higher leg speed was ERG mode on my Wahoo Kickr 19’. I made myself a bunch of different playlists with songs in the 100-126BPM range. I simply warmed up, then locked into the beat of the playlist and got after it for 60’ at a time. Because I didn’t need to think about the power, or adjusting to the gradient changes of ZWIFT I could really effectively PRACTICE this leg turn over.
Honestly, it was really really hard for me at first. Much lower power than I’m doing today felt way more challenging. I didnt have the coordination or the endurance to keep my legs moving for 60 minutes straight, but I kept at it. Eventually 240 or 250 watts turned into 270-280 watts average, and my threshold power (FTP) keeps growing too. I’m not doing more workouts either. Cadence work has been a really effective way to keep adapting. Now I’m much more used to it so since this is just an endurance ride, I do 1x 100+ rpm average for the whole effort.
Usually, my endurance rides are 60-90 minutes, 3 times per week.
The first 20 minutes or so, I don’t notice anything extra challenging anymore. Rate of Perceived Exertion(RPE) is normal and hr and breathing are nice and relaxed. However about half way through however, I can feel things start getting more challenging. Form is a little more difficult to maintain. I have to actively keep my hips and low back stable, and most importantly HR and RPE go up. This is a similar phenomenon as what happens when pushing hard in the last hours of a long ride!
See Also: Neuromuscular Training for Cycling
Bike Cadence: Anecdotal Evidence
2 hour endurance ride I did on 6/14
I took a break from the high cadence during my recovery week a couple weeks ago and self selected for a 2 hour endurance ride. It was super hot that day but, to my pleasant surprise, my HR never drifted from my power production. This was a lightbulb moment and I realized that this extra cadence work on my endurance rides was paying off.
6/18 I again rode intentionally at 95rpm average. Even when going a bit harder, aerobic coupling of hr:power looks good!
6/23- My mFTP moved from 360 to 382 recently, but my TTE dropped down to 36 minutes. I talked about this with my coach Brendan, and we decided to really try and nail 75% FTP for my endurance rides. 287(rounded up) LETS GEAUX! I felt like I really nailed a smooth power band and was really in the groove on this ride. Here I’m really trying to hold the cadence average at 100. I’m still getting out of the saddle to stretch the legs at 75rpm every couple minutes, so it creates a really good challenge to keep the overall average at 100! I was pretty happy with the consistency of this ride and even though I lost a few rpm’s in the last 15 minutes, you can see the HR decouples at 75% ftp(barely dipping my toes in tempo)
7/1 More Observable Progress! Went back with another high rpm endurance ride and even with the usual airstrip temps after working at 75% mFTP for the past 3 weeks the RPE is lower, HR is lower, and decoupling even later into the effort.
Cadence Cycling: WHY Does This Help?
Faster Cadence is Less Efficient, and that’s the point. By increasing leg speed, to the point where it’s uncomfortably hard but you still keep your power right in the endurance range, 70-75% of mFTP you won't have nearly the same “extra help” from your Type 2a and 2b fibers producing the power and you will get a better aerobic stress on less time. Additionally I’m saving my big more powerful motor units for the really hard workouts, zwift races, and group hammer rides!
Learning how to be coordinated enough to pedal faster takes some practice too so be patient, and be consistent! I avoided higher cadence riding in season in the past because it felt harder and I used to think “250 watts is 250 watts” even thought there could be some small differences in how the power is produced. I thought it wouldn’t matter too much and the training benefit would be the same, but I don’t think that anymore at all. Try adding in some cadence speed work to your training calendar after a few months I’m sure you will feel the difference
If you found this helpful, or would like us to take a look at your riding/training to see if there’s anything you could do to be training smarter, contact us online to learn more about our training programs. Happy training and thanks for reading!
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