Road Cycling - workouts and drills to increase cadence

just wondering what kind of workouts ya'll do to increase your cadence. Thanks for your help,
Austin

Austin,

On the bike, an obvious suggestion would be: shift to a lower gear, while keeping the same pace.

A higher cadance is something you will have to get used to (if it works for you at all). In any case, a good position on the bike is crucial, as is a solid endurance base.

Good luck!

One legged excercises work great and will kick your butt!!!

Put your fixed gear on your trainer. It will help you spin better.

Do some high speed intervals in low gears and gradually work your interval cadence up. I have done short intervals in which I will hit 150 rpm's and higher.

Do rides where you never get off the small chainring and concentrate on smooth pedaling at 100 + rpms.

Don't neglect your stregnth work though, it will help you spin in higher and higher gears allowing you to haul @$$.

All kinds of rides.

Do a 10 week cycle where you spend 3 weeks at one speed doing endurance and tempo training rides- 1 to 3 hours per session. Then take out a few of the tempo training rides and add in some strength rides for another 3 weeks- riding at higher gears pushing on the big chainring. Then take out another tempo training ride and one strength ride and replace it with two interval rides and you'll be doing this for two more weeks- anaerobic efforts with easy recoveries. Finally, take out one of the strength rides and add in a power training ride- it will feel like a simulated bike race. Make sure you take a day off from that so you can fully recover.

With all this, within 20 weeks (5 months), you could be ready by summer to race!

Koffee

P.S. The reason why one legged drills are so good is because they work the hip flexors- that crease at the top of the legs when you bend the leg and raise it up. The hip flexors are often overlooked and undertrained and developed properly, will add strength and power to your pedal stroke, which would make you faster and stronger as a rider. Do the one legged drills only on days when you're doing the tempo training rides. They are NOT meant for the strength drills, interval drills, and power drills!

Koffee

ride a fixed gear bike. to build your cadence you need to work on it...its pretty easy to pedal at a high cadance when you're fresh, so at the begining of your ride, plan on riding at a higher cadence for mile and build up your leg speed and distance. And at the end of your ride do the same.

My leg speed has fallen off in recent years, but I remember a ride when a guy rode up to me and started challege me. He could have gone right by me, but clearly rode up next to me. He shifted to a higher gear, looked over at me and tried to pass. I was in a 42x15 gear and kept up with his 52x14 gear. Our speed when up to the low 30s, he was now in his biggest gear...I was still in the 42x15 and matched his speed side by side for about 1/4 mile...he was breathing very hard now but was determined. I picked up the speed of my legs and started to pull ahead, I then reached down to shift to the big chainring...it was like a turbo kicked in!

ride a fixed gear bike. to build your cadence you need to work on it...its pretty easy to pedal at a high cadance when you're fresh, so at the begining of your ride, plan on riding at a higher cadence for mile and build up your leg speed and distance. And at the end of your ride do the same.




I agree, I bought a fix with the notion of working on my spin.. problem is they are addicting. Spin is great, but I dont own a road bike anymore

Question: what's a spin class?

Question: what's a spin class?

Sit in a room with 30 others sweating on computrainers for 45 minutes when its nice and sunny outside.

As to increasing cadence, a good way is to get one of those computers that have a cadence read out. That way you have feedback on what your cadence is on an instantaneous basis. Then when you are doing a ride that is not challenging, just ride a gear lower then normal and work on getting your cadence up. Initially, increasing cadence will cause a bit of a burn in the quads. However, if you keep at it, you will be able to maintain a higher cadence without the burn.

I do drills going down a slight grade occasionally, though I spin pretty much all the time. I ride just below the point where I bounce on the saddle, and hold it for as long as I can or for 5 miles, whichever comes first. It's more of an occasional tune up for me than anything else, but something along those lines will help increase your cadence.

Recognizing that there will be individual differences, approximately what cadence should you shoot for – for both (i) maximum cadence for a short duration and (ii) sustained cadence over a long ride (2-3 hours)?

It depends- if you're doing strength work (simulating hills), the recommended cadences are 60- 80 rpms. If you're on a flat, the recommended cadences are 80- 100 rpms. For a strength ride, you're obviously not going to be on the bike as long as for the endurance rides- I would consider an endurance ride of 80- 100 rpms for 1- 2 hours depending on how much time you have free in the day time, and for the strength rides, I would think 1- 1 1/2 hours max would be appropriate, depending on heart rate and how hard you were taxing yourself in the big gears.

Koffee

i was so obsessed with high cadence that strength work was totally neglected, and my top cruising speed plateaued at 20mph. now that i've incorporated low cadence, high muscle tension rides, my speed is noticeably improving, and hills are becoming noticeably easier.