Building Cadence.....

[kimikaw]

The idea makes sense, but I don't know about the numbers.

I'm one of those slow-but-steady types. An all-out sprint for me is some people's marathon pace.

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but I strongly believe that everyone should be able to maintain a cadence of 140 for 60-120 seconds, without bouncing. Learning to do that will teach you to smooth your pedal stroke at any cadence. It's easy to pedal in squares at 70 rpm. Not so much at 140.

Like you I'm one of the slow and steady. When I swam competitively in HS, I did the long races, couldn't sprint for the life of me (and honestly, wasn't very fast at the long ones relative to my competitors either ). But that said, once I get in a groove, I can go and go. I hope to get my natural go to cadence in the mid-80's because even after only a couple of rides in that range, I see the advantages of the easier/smoother pedal force and ability to speed up.

Now to that 140rpm thing, boy, I get over 100 and I have one bouncy butt. Trying to take advantage of the many downhills around here to practice smoothing things out at the higher rpms - (while basically in a glide, because on these hills I would need to be up there around 140 to actually apply force).