Originally Posted by
Sierra_rider
I just saw it pop up on the "new posts" search and decided to respond, but yeah, still in my 30s. Regardless of age, the research suggests that we generally pick the best cadence. The caveat to that might be people on the extreme. I'd say the low 70s are very low for cadence numbers. My own personal observation is that my cadence has a rough correspondence to my power numbers. I don't know how relevant it is for others, but my cadence generally increases as my power increases...exception being steep climbs.
Quite right that one size does not fit all. It may be fitting that in my 30s I pushed taller gears/less cadence because I it seems like I had never ending strength with the exception of 100+ milers. In my 50s, I found that I loss a bit of that strength and kept moving the cadence up. Looking at today’s relaxed 30 miler my cadence was 86 Ave. On yesterday’s FTP the average was 98. During the actual test, it was probably about 105+, so it all still depends.
OP YMMV. Don’t force yourself into something that feels unnatural when you are racing. That is probably the last place to experiment. If you feel yourself really pushing, you might want to try gearing down to a faster cadence. Instead, when you are training for the next one, try moving your cadence up and if that feels good, stick with it for awhile and then try bumping it up again incrementally. You will know what feels right.