Today I did Dade +1. The first 5 intervals I did at 100%, but my cadence fell off at the backend of the internal. The last 4 I did at 95% and held the cadence longer, but still dropped.
If I hit the power despite @chad saying the cadence needs to be over 100rpm is that ok?
As a basic rule, Power is more important than cadence. They suggest that you focus on the power first, and match cadence recommendations if that is practical.
The cadence recommendations are blanket approach, and reasonable for many riders. But they are also not sacred, and can be altered to suit a rider’s personal preference or specific needs.
Hello Chad,
Could not agree with you more regarding cadence. At 66y.o., I am pedaling at lower cadences, it keeps my heart rate lower than higher cadences. Losing heart beats with age, I need to preserve every precious one of them.
@bazcurtis, no worries at all. See the cadence ‘recommendations’ as just that, recommendations. There’s nothing to say you can’t do these at 90rpm, 85…70rpm if you want to, if it suits your goals, and if you’re capable of doing it on-target and without joint pain. The higher-rpm recommendations are aimed at keeping things a little lighter on the force and higher on the speed, but you can approach these any way you like as long as the work gets done, i.e., your watts stay where they ought to be and you’re able to successfully get through all your intervals.
One school of thought is to focus on strength in an earlier phase of your training and speed as you get closer to final event. I tend to do more force work earlier on and then pick up cadence work as I get to the summer, although maybe that’s totally n=1.
Thanks Chad for replying. That is good to know. I did Mt Hale today and my cadence just plummeted. It felt like the end of ramp test during the middle of those interval. I had to back it off to 95%
