60 years old, 170, 6 feet...First, the gear inches I am going to supply are based upon a nominal 27 inch wheel. In reality, the tubulars that I use are 26.3 inches which means the gear inches are overstated.
I was at the track this morning and for our 30 lap warmup and 100 meter jumps, generally, we all use 80 to 81 gear inches. This morning I had a 48/16 which is 81. Hellyer is a cement 330 meter 23.5 degree banking track compared to Cleave's ADT indoor, wooden track super fast
250 meter track.
I put on a 48/14 (92.6) gear inches and we did some team pursuit efforts 4X4 laps, 3X4 laps and 3X1 1/2 laps. I took a 10 minute break and then I did a solo 2K pursuit standing start with my coach timing laps. My first pursuit was 3:08. I rested another 10 minutes and then did another 2K solo pursuit at 3:06. My cadence was 90 to 93 rpm.
We were happy with the result considering the windy conditions, my 3 week horrible chest cold and the pre-pursuit efforts. I hope to be under 2:50 at Hellyer's slow cement track for Districts in two weeks. I may increase my gearing to 49/14 (94.5 gear inches) or work on spinning faster in the lower gear. This is where is it is very individual and the question is can I increase leg speed and use my cardio faster than I increase power. If so, I will stick with the smaller gear. If not, I will increase my gearing.