Riding cadence and hills

Question: does the avg cadence calculation in your Garmin take into account the time spent NOT pedaling?  My Cateye doesn't take that time into account so it always shows a lower avg cadence than I actually ride. 

As for your main question, I always try to maintain ~90 rpm cadence up hill.  Sometimes this isn't possible, i.e. on very steep hills.  But for the most part I sit and spin up the hills.  I will, at times, shift to a higher gear and stand.  On long hills, alternating seated and standing gives my back and leg muscles a break. 

Tommy,

I understand the steep hills where you don't have a choice. There were times when I could have chosen a higher cadence. I guess I will have to do the same loop again at a higher cadence and compare speed and HR. 

Kevin 

No.



So, why did you choose not too?  Was it just more comfortable at you chosen cadence?  If you want, try different cadence from time to time.  It's a good idea just to build a level of comfort at different RPMs.  But, in the end, if you ride enough you will find the 'right' cadence for yourself to ride at.

Certainly, if you are constantly"grinding" away at 70rpm, you might be better off lifting your cadence some.  But if that average includes long coasting sections at zero, it may be less meaningful.  Anyway, try riding at a little bit higher cadence and see how it feels.  I'd worry less about speed and HR as cadence is going to be a small factor in either and you won't be able to tell if that's what is driving any changes anyway.

I just posted the following in another thread and edited it a bit:

Power is function of pedal speed (cadence) and pedal force (torque). To address only cadence is to just partially address your power demands hence it is incorrect to only talk about cadence or talk about an ideal cadence without taking into consideration that pedal speed/force will be influenced by: metabolic fitness, physiology (i.e. muscle fiber), gearing, crank lenght, terrain, etc. Anytime you pedal faster you are producing less torque on the pedal to sustain a given power output and viceversa, everytime you pedal slower you are producing a higher torque on the pedals to sustain a given power output.

So which one is better? It depends as each ridier will find their 'sweet spot' based on their gearing, crank lenght, physiology, riding distance, intensity, fitness, etc. but a sure simple way to identify your optimal cadence is to ride at the pedal speed (cadence) and pedal force (torque) that allows you to ride at the desire intensity while producing the lower RPE possible. i.e. if you ride at your zone 2 and 85rpm 'feels' easier than 90 then ride at 85. If 90 rpm feels easier than 85 or 95 then ride at 90. The more you practice this you'll identify what works for you based on all the factors I listed above.

** Please note that gearing/crank lenght and the terrain where you ride will have a bigger immediate impact on your average cadence/torque. If you don't have adequate gearing and you ride on hilly terrain then your lower cadence avg (and higher torque avg) might be just a result of you running out of 'easy' gears to ride at your optimal cadence. Also it would be worth looking as to how garmin estimates your cadence as that might or might not be necessarely accurate.

No, it does not -- at least not back when I was using a Garmin (last year).  So yeah, the reported avg cadence can be way way off.

OK thanks for the input. I did not coast much so even thought 70 may be a little lower than the actual it was probably not that far off. I will play around with it and see what the data reveals. This was my first outdoor ride and the course is a little challenging so my mindset was just to get through it. I did a flat ride yesterday focusing on maintaining 90 RPM and I have to say that overall I felt pretty good. It was a little hard at first because I had to focus on the cadence once I got to the point where I could relax and spin it got better. The ride was a flat out and back head wind out tail wind back. I averaged 20.7 MPH at a HR of 133 which is zone 2 for me. The ave cadence per Garmin was 92 RPM. I think it felt pretty good and will try to push the cadence higher than 70 maybe 80 - 85 and see what happens.

Kevin