Originally Posted by
rowerek
I am getting ready for sprint triathlon: 600y open water swim, 10miles flat ride, and 5k run. I have spent most of my time on improving my running, and finally I feel confident about running 5k or even 10k. These days I am back to cycling and swimming. I have checked info on the Internet and it is suggested that for triathlon one should keep cadence high (90-110), and that should save your legs for the run. I have measured my cadence and it looks like I can do 90 tops for now, but not more than that.
I am curious about cadence/RPM that cyclist in 50+ group maintain, prefer or target, I am 60+.
Do you know what your cadence is? Are you using cadence in your training? Has your cadence changed with age?
For now, I measure my cadence by synchronizing my RPM with Metronome app beats/clicks sound.
The trend in time trials and track racing is the use of larger gears and slower cadence. The primary reason was that excess cadence just wastes energy - windmilling legs at faster rpms are just losses. So yeah my cadence has gone down with age. I used to pursuit at the track in an 88 and now do a 94-96 at about the same result.
I know exactly what my cadence is and for that matter every other bodily metric known to man that I can reasonably measure.
I am not a triathlete and have never run right after riding in some type of event. I suspect the good news is that your legs will have had a lot of blood flow and very little eccentric muscle contraction fatigue. Since triathletes tend to perform the events at tempo/zone 3 effort, I imagine that power level during the bike portion is more relevant than cadence. Also, which event for you, running or cycling, is stronger and what the course is like may play a role.
I am a negative split racer. I would split a triathlon reserving the most energy for the run. In general, I do not think that the biking portion of a triathlon is determinate in ones results.