Road Bike Racing - less watts, higher cadence...how to interprete

so, i did my typical tempo ride around the park.

session one:
higher cadence
lower average power

session two:
lower cadence
higher average power


the speeds and heart rates were nearly identical.

so, is this virtually the same ride, as far as effort goes? If i multiple power x cadence, it's pretty much the same. so, i think i just answered my own question. anyway, do you guys take into account your cadence or does your software do that for you? (i don't use cyclingpeaks).

since i'm working on increasing my cadence, this changes things as i compare my progress over the weeks. i was really only looking at watts before.

Why are you trying to increase your cadence, if you get more power with lower cadence? Ride what's comfortable...

Why are you trying to increase your cadence, if you get more power with lower cadence? Ride what's comfortable...

i want to try to train more like i race. i typically race with a higher cadence and i like the snappier accelerations that i can do. easier for me to respond to surges and pace changes.

when i train solo, it's usually a lower cadence and i feel bogged down sometimes. for example, if i do a long tempo session, i'm usually falling into the mid to high 80s, but during a race i'm about 10 rpm over that.

Power already takes cadence into account, so multiplying power*cadence doesn't make a particularly positive amount of sense. If your power was greater, I would expect your speed also to be greater in the same terrain unless the wind changed or your aero profile changed.

Why are you trying to increase your cadence, if you get more power with lower cadence? ...
Yeah , why do you have gears? You should just ride a 53-10 fixie.

'Cuz that relates to what I said and all. ^^

That seems weird to me, because I can respond more at a lower cadence than higher. That said, my "natural cadence" is 103-ish, but I TT at ~94.

Cadence * power tells you nothing, since power = cadence * torque (sorta...).

Power already takes cadence into account, so multiplying power*cadence doesn't make a particularly positive amount of sense.

gotcha. that's makes sense, but the unchanging HR and speed threw me for a loop. also, i felt stronger during the lower power session. interesting.

it must have been some headwind or something else.

FWIW, higher cadence is less efficient (per Dr. Ferrari's research), but allows you to go for longer and have more power at the end of a long effort. So, you're trading aerobic expenditure for legs later.

So, if you pedal faster, you won't be putting as much power to the road. Not a good thing for an event like a short TT, but it's great for something like a 65 mile road race.

Well, speed isn't a very good indicator, unless you're doing laps of the same course, and can verify the weather doesn't change....

Your HR could possibly be higher with the higher cadence --- you're putting more stress on your aerobic system, rather than your muscles...

Well, speed isn't a very good indicator, unless you're doing laps of the same course, and can verify the weather doesn't change....

Your HR could possibly be higher with the higher cadence --- you're putting more stress on your aerobic system, rather than your muscles...

yeah, it's laps in the park at the same time each day. i thought the weather was the same, but that's almost impossible to verify. i'm guessing a slight change in wind could account for the difference.

also, i fully expected my HR to be higher, but it came out exactly the same. two workouts, seperated by two weeks, each over 1.5 hours in length, and i end up with exactly 157bmp for each. what are the odds?

don't multiply by cadence...as others have said, power already takes cadence into account. Basically what this shows is that your HR is lower for a given power at a low cadence versus a high cadence. However, One fatigues faster at lower cadences. When I TT, I start at a higher cadence and work down to minimize cariac drift while increasing power steadily.

Power is already an energy/time measurement. It's only effected by how much energy you're putting into the pedals, your cadence will only change your body's ability to put out energy.

ctrl+f normalized not found.

it sounds to me like these results are completely meaningless. Since you didn't consider average speed to be significantly different there was some problem with the power measurement. Your speed fluctuated more with the high cadence or you coasted more with the low cadence.