just recently I’ve realised that my cadence dropped a bit.
all winter i was just doing Z1-Z3 rides (with sporadic Z4-Z5 climbs, no HIIT per se), ~1500km/month.
And now, even with shorter cranks (I’ve just mounted 165mm vs 170mm before, but i’ve noticed lower cadence before crankset change, and of course shorter crankarms should promote even higher cadence) my cadence is lower on a few (close to max effort) climbs.
14 mins @110%FTP (20 sec slower now) 88rpm in Sept, 83rpm now.
I see something similar on other ~14-15min climb. 79 avg rpm now, 85-95rpm a few months ago.
(climbs aren’t steep, avg speed ~20-21km/h so far from my lowest gear (36/34).
Did you notice similar thing ? and at the end, is it good or bad? 
Perhaps the title should have been ‘Lower outdoor cadence after winter’?
Maybe do more coffee?
You are in control of your cadence. Pedal faster if you want to or think you should. In ERG mode, just change cadence. In resistance mode, shift or change the level until you can maintain the cadence you want. Outdoors, shift to a gear that works. The only time this doesn’t work is when you run out of low gears on a steep climb.
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I don’t do indoor. Cadence numbers I posted were ‘naturally’ chosen by my body.
and of course i’m not referring to easy riding on a flat etc.
Your legs will naturally be lazy if your brain lets them, especially over winter. It’s a fight or flight response.
You need to somehow get your brain to communicate the urgency to pick up the pace to your legs. Maybe go for a ride out in the countryside, i.e., where there are lots of dogs to chase you.
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probably not a big issue. but if you want to change it then you’ll just have to train it a bit. I don’t think it matters too much on the Z3 and below but as you go harder and harder then (for me at least) the pedal force starts to matter more and more so the higher cadence is more helpful.
I know for me personally, when I’m tired my Z2 cadence drops by like 5 RPM and it’s not a big deal. But when I do intervals, it’s almost a linear relationship where every zone above Z2 my preferred cadence will go up by about 5 RPM. But every once in a while I do get into a spot where my brain gets pedal force and power conflated (especially sprinting) where I think more force will be more power without realizing that the cadence plays a major part of power output.
I’m not really worried, I think it’s just an interesting observation, there is a lot about low cadence training in a winter (which I guess results with lower avg cadence at the end too).
I guess when I start more HIIT (like 4x10min, 4x15min @105%FTP, or vo2max intervals), cadence will rise with time.