Training outside vs indoor

Training
21

Low cadence (under 70) causes more time under tension, and higher forces, and is generally suboptimal for sweet spot level efforts.

Without wind, the only penalty is the basic suboptimality of it.

With wind gusts in your face, you’re already at high force, and your cadence can instantaneously drop to 60-63 pretty easily within one pedal downstroke, and then release as the gust is alleviated and reduces the high drag force.

Cadence sensor won’t sense those within-pedal-stroke cadence changes.

But your central nervous system (specificially the stretch reflex and GTO’s, among other sub-brain structures) will, and the result is not only that they maintain increase force to accommodate for the lower perceived cadence (subconsciously), but they may unnecessarily overshoot force production within the muscle for a moment when they suddenly are going more slowly than your brain expects them to go.

It’s like the opposite of the picking up an empty jug you expected to be full, effect.

The result: more energy wasted, in especially performance-damaging ways.

Does that answer your question or am I missing the mark?

4 Likes
22

That answered it, thank you for the reply.

1 Like
23

Can you give a better picture of the conditions inside vs outside? Here is what I took from your posts, and a few questions:

Inside:

  • what is temp? For example “its always 65F / 18C inside”
  • what about fans? For example “I always have 3 fans blowing”
  • same bike and power meter as outside? Or Wahoo inside and Favero outside?
  • Zwift sim mode, do you follow bots on flatter courses?
  • 85-90rpm cadence

Outside:

  • how hot?
  • 15-19mph wind
  • same bike and power meter as outside? Or Wahoo inside and Favero outside?
  • for 2x20-min intervals how many stop lights? Rolling terrain or flat?
  • cadence drops from 85-90rpm inside, down to 65-70rpm outside

@STP posted above an article on cycling cadence. It varies a lot between riders. For example I can climb 60-70rpm in the mountains for hours and hours, without issues. Like the article states, on long steady sweet spot efforts (solo or in a group) I will lower my cadence to 75-80rpm to reduce breathing and oxygen consumption.

Here is the link that STP posted:

Learning to ride and use different cadences is good.