Originally Posted by
chas58
130rpm is pretty good (if your are comfortable and smooth). Looking at our last training session - most people were not going much over 130. Some of the really fast guys peaked at 140.
It felt reasonably smooth, until I got out of the saddle leading up to the start line, then I was pretty un-smooth and felt like an out-of-balance laundry machine.
(I should've just stayed seated, lesson learned for next time.)
130 feels as fast as I can comfortably spin with any fluidity. I'd say I could develop higher cadence with some diligent training in smaller gears, which may be true, but...I'm not so sure I should focus on bringing max cadence up. HR in the sprints was peaking at 180, and although I've seen higher HR's in road race sprints, I don't think spinning higher cadence with max HR as a practice may be a safe path for me. If I can build some leg strength, run heavier gearing, and generate speed without spinning up higher (including not driving my respiratory rate and HR higher), my perception is that it'll be easier on my heart and I may last longer as a cyclist. Of course, that's just a personal theory (with some cautionary thoughts from family heart health history lurking in the background).
All of these self-cautionary thoughts aside, there is no doubt that pedaling smoothness can benefit from training with lower gearing and faster spinning. It just doesn't necessarily have to be under high power output.