RojoRacing
Donut Powered Wise-guy
After an hour spinning at 200w watching youtube I thought I'd do a little test. So I'd be averaging about 126HR for the first hour after it got warmed up and stable, my cadence was 80 for that portion which is my natural endurance cadence without looking. From there I dropped it to 70rpm for 3 mins and each 3 mins I would add 5 rpm till I got to 107 which was more like a sloppy 110 which is as fast as I can and still be smooth on 170mm cranks. Each person is going to have different results and each different crank length with produce an average window of results for people with shorter cranks with a window in the higher range.
After I got up to 107 I dropped back to whatever felt natural which ended up being 83, I little higher than earlier because I just got done with such a high cadence. Each step up in cadence brings with it an elevated HR step as well and after returning to a natural cadence it took 50 seconds to recover to a stable 135bpm, and then an avg of 133 for the next 3 minutes. I should mention 70 in erg gives the pedals a heavy feel with it being obvious where the power stroke of the rotation was. 75 was a quite a bit smoother, 80 smoother yet and 85 feeling like the best balance of a light pedal and balanced leg momentum. Getting up to 90 the pedals start feeling very light and I start to notice the weight of my legs, 95 less pedal weight and more leg weight, 100 even more so and at 110 I barely feel the pedals and it almost all leg control. 110 is just my max sustainable, I can spin up to 140 if I'm ramping up.
The first picture shows all the ramps as well as the 4 minutes of recovery at the end. What does this teach me? Well, not a whole lot I didn't already know from past experience but at a certain power you're going to have an optimal cadence for the lowest load on your HR which I'd think is good for endurance. That optimal cadence with change with crank length, rider, and effort and in % of FTP.
After I got up to 107 I dropped back to whatever felt natural which ended up being 83, I little higher than earlier because I just got done with such a high cadence. Each step up in cadence brings with it an elevated HR step as well and after returning to a natural cadence it took 50 seconds to recover to a stable 135bpm, and then an avg of 133 for the next 3 minutes. I should mention 70 in erg gives the pedals a heavy feel with it being obvious where the power stroke of the rotation was. 75 was a quite a bit smoother, 80 smoother yet and 85 feeling like the best balance of a light pedal and balanced leg momentum. Getting up to 90 the pedals start feeling very light and I start to notice the weight of my legs, 95 less pedal weight and more leg weight, 100 even more so and at 110 I barely feel the pedals and it almost all leg control. 110 is just my max sustainable, I can spin up to 140 if I'm ramping up.
The first picture shows all the ramps as well as the 4 minutes of recovery at the end. What does this teach me? Well, not a whole lot I didn't already know from past experience but at a certain power you're going to have an optimal cadence for the lowest load on your HR which I'd think is good for endurance. That optimal cadence with change with crank length, rider, and effort and in % of FTP.