Teaching yourself to spin faster? (mtbing)

Hi, all!

The weather's improving, the light is lasting longer, and soon I'll be riding my mountain bike again. What I've noticed is that my natural cadence is pretty slow; on one of my "killer" non-technical climbs, I pedal in time with my breath, the front foot coming down with each exhalation. That's gotta be too slow. (Sorry I don't have any hard numbers.) Anyway, regardless of my hard numbers, I figure that there must be some known techniques for speeding your feet up (not necessarily getting up the hill faster, just moving your legs faster). Anyone have any tips?

two ideas that have worked for me:

road biking. use a cadence meter and actually pay attention to it. when I started I could barely get into the 70's, now I'm comfortable in the high 80's most of the time. I think I'll try to do some trainer time in the 120's and see how that goes, it's supposed to make 100 feel awesome.

control your breath. try to take one breath revolution (in-out) in 4 or 5 pedal strokes. easiest to try this on long spinning sections or on the road bike, or to practice while doing other activities like walking. I find it makes me smoother and I pedal faster.

good luck!!

Namaste,
~T~

Try using a lower gear (or bigger cog) int the back. This will force you to spin fast to keep moving.