When you're shot, shift to higher gear?

postal_bag

In training, if I am worn-out after 2x30' of SST, unable to do a 3rd rep @ my normal cadence of 90-92 rpm, I can often bang off another 30' at 85 rpm, or sometimes even as low as 70 rpm.

root

Curious. My natural cadence seems to be around 110 - 115. When I don't look at the cadence and just ride and then after a while glance at the computer, it's always in that range. I have to think and concentrate to keep it at any other rate.

I'm curious why would anyone want to ride at a certain cadence (esp. if it is higher than what feels natural to them)? Why is everyone taught to ride like that over there?

Piotr

I too will shift up towards the end of a long SST session. Perhaps the calcium ions are less likely to be released from the sarcoplasmic recticulum at lower cadence thereby negating any efficiency gains from higher cadence?

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dhk2

Exactly what I was just thinking today on my second 233 W interval.....damn calcium ions getting hung up again in the old recticulum

Pendejo

Exactly, Steve, that's the issue in a nutshell. So far we've had proponents of the three possible options: gear up with a lowered cadence, gear down with a higher cadence, or stay in the same gear and lower the cadence. (Well, there is a fourth option: quit.)

One poster equated dropping down a gear with "quitting." I know it feels that way because we never want to do it, but you have to do what is required to survive.

I don't have a powermeter on my bike but I've done a lot of experimenting during interval training, and it seems to me that when I've enjoyed as much of a certain gear as I can stand, no matter what I do next is going to result in a decrease in speed; but gearing up seems to result in a greater loss of speed than gearing down. But I can't prove it because these sort of "experiments" are just too uncontrolled. But when I read that quote in Krabbe's book, I started to wonder if I was missing the boat. I still am.

whoawhoa

Probably has a lot to do with the style of racing. High cadence makes it easier to jump across small gaps, deal the micro-accelerations and decelerations that occur in a fast-moving pack, and most importantly, sprint out of corners after slowing way down going into them.