Hot Potato

Only use I ever found for cadence was predicting how long I could maintain a certain speed or exertion level. Cadence X Generates speed Y in flat terrain, and I can go for a long time. A faster Cadence A, however, makes me go faster than cadence X, but I Will be out of breath in a short period of time. Generally, cadences below X make me push harder for the same speed, so my legs will tire.

For me, a cadence around 95 provides the highest speed I can maintain, and I will gear up or down to stay there with a pedal force I can maintain. I will go with more force and higher cadence when I want or have to, usually when I know the distance that burst is for is less than my burn out distance.

i can use a slow cadence to build strength, and notice that my optimal cadence goes up and down with fitness, but It have not found any use for average cadence.

give it a try. Hold a cadence, gear up or down to hold an exertion level you can maintain for 30 minutes of riding time. Spin up slowly and easy from stops. Experiment with different exertion levels, cadence, and time/distance. Find what works for a 30 minute ride, use that as a baseline. You will go further and faster knowing how you can maintain an output for the longest time. Then use hills and interval training to make that performanc better.

spdracr39

This

Seattle Forrest

1. Go to Garmin Connect (web site, on your PC, not the mobile app) and go to whatever ride you're interested in.
2. In the top-right corner (white background) there is an icon that looks like a gear. Click it.
3. Select Export to TCX or Export to GPX from the menu that pops up.
4. Open the file in Excel or any other analysis tool.

If you have SQL Server (which is available for free) you can use the query I posted earlier in this thread.

Well your Garmin saves a summary to the file based on its settings, and that summary won't change. But you can recalculate it after the fact.

bakes1

Blasphemy.
Cadence is the most important term in the history of bicycling.
I can't even imagine how earlier riders functioned without a computer to measure it so that they could then spend hours crunching the numbers after each ride.
The only thing more important than crunching numbers imo is wearing matching kit.

Homebrew01

"Average speed" is the pinnacle of data analysis for cycling. Calculating the perfect pacing and time to arrive at the coffee shop, before the crowds get there.

Marcus_Ti

Coffee shop? I thought the race was to bars or wineries? Am I doing it wrong?


Should I really be racing to chill with Nick the barista at Starbucks who is presently an underemployed English major?

Homebrew01

Before noon: Coffee shop
Noon - 6 pm: Wineries
After 6 pm: Bars

Marcus_Ti

On Tour de Nebraska it is more like:

Before noon: bars (breakfast/lunch)
Midmorning to evening: wineries
Evening: bars

You come on TdN looking for a sissy coffee shop, you're going to be a hurtin for the whole week. I will confess to, in desperation, downing a Srawberrita in a pinch for alcohol before noon, and then hopping back in a paceline.

Looigi

It's averaged over time. Average cadence = total number of crank turns divided by the time between Start and Stop (excluding pauses or times when cadence is zero for some short period if Zero Averaging is off). Distance doesn't figure in.

Why have Zero Averaging set to off? What's relevant to most is what cadence they use when producing power. If Zero Averaging is on, then the average cadence during a ride will be decreased by the time spent coasting. For example, if your ride is up then down a big hill and you pedal up and coast down, for most what would be important is the avg cadence they maintained while pedaling up.

gregf83 

You don't need any technology. Keep you chain taut at all times and don't coast. You'll end up a smoother rider but you don't need Garmin or Strava to tell you if you were coasting too often.