Originally Posted by
MattFoley
I get what you're saying and I don't mean to imply that I'm choosing to mash in a higher gear rather than spin in a lower one. Instead, what I mean is building leg strength required to spin a higher gear at a high cadence. While spinning a lower gear may be a good CV workout, it seems to me that spinning a higher gear works the CV system AND builds leg strength, and may be more effective for training purposes. I would not, however, try to spin a higher cadence on a higher gear on something like a mountain century....I'd go for high spin/low gear.
Please also note that this is my philosophy/what seems to work for me...I'm not claiming this is gospel or anything.
Sure. If you can spin a bigger gear at the desired cadence, by all means spin it. When Eddy Merckx was asked whether it was better to spin a small gear or mash a big one, he said "spin a big gear".
But we're not Eddy. And the implication of your previous post was that at your current state of fitness, spinning the big gear up the long climbs was beyond you. All I am saying is, the best strategy to address that is to train on the smaller gear.