Hey I am new(ish) to TR, started in late March. While I have for the most part aimed for consistency and definitely have been able to double down on that more recently, I am realizing through the Podcast and through some of the topics here regarding my cadence selection and wanted to understand better if I am losing out.
All in all, no races, just started into structured training, nothing really ‘planned out’ in terms of a event goal, there was this city tour event but with C-19 thats out of the question I think and have kept it there as the target point of the training plan (Nov).
So the question stems from I have foolishly (I think) ignored the recommended cadence ranges at time, thinking spinner faster is equally better, normally always staying between 90-100 (now a days more at 100, guessing its become easier to spin).
However outside I don’t - probably due to my outside rides being mostly group based where they’re not spinning very high (80-90) and speed isn’t very high (sub 30kmh). When I do ride with stronger riders my cadence doesn’t go that high sitting between 85-95 depending on the gear to maintain the speed.
Am I impacting myself from developing further my FTP or building muscular capacity by not adhering to the recommendations? When I hear pedaling efficiency across a range, are we talking about keeping a god pedal stroke through that cadence range or is there more to it?
And if I do spin more inside than outside, do I lose any performance gains or developments as I transfer outside or is there anything else I am overlooking/missing?
For context: LV plan, weekend outside unstructured rides and at this stage I have started throwing in an endurance session on the Monday (condensed the plan to T-W-Th; leaving Friday for do nothing recovery).
