spin spin spin

Something our team (including me) struggled with a lot was keeping our cadence up during the ride. We've spent tons of time building our base with low cadence strength work that we tended to mash on our bikes during the race. So now what I'm thinking about is this cadence thing and why it is important to keep your RPMs above 90.

After a little research I've found out some stuuuurrrff about leg muscles.
Low cadences (corresponding to higher resistance or harder gears) require more force contraction in one's legs than would a faster cadence in an easier gear. This uses something called fast-twitch fibers which burn glycogen (stored in the muscles at a relatively short supply). Triathletes especially tend to make the mistake of mashing their muscles with these low cadences and extra force. This causes them to fatigue more quickly, or essentially do much more work than they need to. Another negative? It takes even longer for your muscles to recover when you use fast-twitch fibers.

So then what are the bonuses of higher cadences? SLOW-TWITCH FIBERS, BABY! (yeeeeahhh buddy). These are our friend. When using slow-twitch fibers we burn fat and I don't know about you, but personally I am very into the idea of burning fat and looking buff. Fat supplies an almost limitless amount of fuel which means your body can recover quickly with some rest. Plus, for triathletes (like you, me, and idk your bff Jill) a cadence of 90 RPM can mimic the stride rate of running (which, you guessed it, is ideally 90 strides per minute - snazzy how that works, ain't it?). This makes it easier to keep up your ideal stride rate running off the bike.

Now for you cyclists out there, I don't really have the answers. I can say that wikipedia (that ever reliable source) has lots of info on cycling cadence. Don't worry, I did more reading that wikipedia, but not a lot. ;]

For now - keep your cadence up! (and stare at that sick scary cycling picture of me)