Originally Posted by
terrymorse
Gearing up or down is not the relevant point.
The relevant point is that these are my self-selected cadences at a given grade and power level.
As one would expect from exercise physiology, in order to delay muscle fatigue, as my power output increases, I naturally select a higher cadence. I suspect most people do.
I must be missing something--I don't see how the gearing, power and cadence can possibly be truly independent variables--if you have a higher cadence at the same gearing, you will of course get higher power. Higher cadence at the same level of resistance would actually increase muscle fatigue, however.
Cadence is, however, the point at which we try to balance muscle fatigue against cardiovascular capacity, so I think people vary on this more than commonly believed. Exercise physiology has a lot of facets.