Cadence

This post was prompted by surfing over to Tri-Daddy's house and discovering there are some misconceptions about cadence. I'll cover bike and run cadence as best I can.

Always remember, I am not USAT-certified, nor am I an exercise physiologist, but I have sucked up a lot of information, and if called upon, can verify most anything I state as "fact."

Bike Cadence
A "good" bike cadence is generally accepted as 85-95RPM. Does this mean that no matter what gear you are in or what sort of terrain that that is what you should be at? No. Does it mean that if you are comfortable at a higher cadence that you are doing something wrong? No. How about the reverse? No again (unless you're a triathlete; see the Run section--if you're a pure cyclist, lower than 85 can be effective--think Jan Ullrich).

Just as you will encounter different terrain on your average ride, so will you apply different cadence numbers to match that terrain. Try climbing a 20% grade at 95RPM! Well, it CAN be done provided you have the right gearing, but that's something else. Your average, comfortable cadence should be what you naturally fall into when you are doing a relatively flat time trial ride. If you can use your gears to stay around that same cadence when climbing or descending, even better. What does this mean? When you are preparing to do a non-flat race course, you should change your cassette to match your strength and the course.

People who ride a lot in Florida (which is even FLATTER than Illinois, I've heard) usually run an 11-23 or even 11-21 cassette (standard front double chainrings for a tri bike are 53-39--if you don't know what these numbers are, head on over to Sheldon Brown's wonderful website and read all about gears and even what he has to say about cadence). Here in Illinois we call that configuration suitable for riding "tollway overpasses," meaning that for the duration of the ride, the steepest "hill" you will encounter is a road passing over one of the many tollways. I run an 11-23 cassette on my tri bike for most of the riding I do within about a 50-mile radius of home.

People who ride a lot in actual hills may run a 12-25 or a 12-27 cassette to enable themselves to stay relatively close to their "best" cadence even while climbing. When I go up to train on the Ironman Wisconsin course, or when I take a trip to ride on actual mountains, I put that 12-27 cassette on. One rule I do have, though, is that if I am going to run my disk wheel (my beautiful, sexy Hed 3D), that it has to be a course I can ride with the 11-23. Although that may change this March at Ralph's--stay tuned!

Certainly if you are going to do Ironman racing for several years, you will want to have access to more than 1 cassette if you plan on racing other than the notoriously flat Ironman Florida course (which I will probably ride on my disk with the 11-23 or maybe the 12-25). There is no shame in having some bigger gears that enable you to keep a good cadence going (which will help moderate your heart rate as well) over all the terrain, and especially if you do a multiple-loop course like Wisconsin, while you may not use all those gears for the first loop, you will be glad you have them on the second. Changing cassettes is really easy, too--even Crackhead can do it herself!

All that being said, you will develop comfort zones of different cadences that you use under different conditions. For example, into a headwind, you may be more comfortable staying in your pre-wind gear but just reducing your cadence (of necessity). Or you may shift down in order to maintain the same cadence. You will find what works for you. You will probably warm up at a higher cadence and easier gear, and then when you are warmed up, shift into a higher gear and perhaps reduce your cadence a bit. Side note: the same is true of watts--you develop a "menu" of wattage ranges that you use under different conditions and at different points during an Ironman ride.

Where you need to be careful is when climbing hills. My coach has written something on how to climb hills; if I can find it I'll put it here or provide a link. At any rate, watch what happens when you stand up when climbing. Your cadence drops, and odds are your heart rate increases. If you are very light (under 2.3 lbs. per inch of height), you won't pay as much of a heart rate penalty when standing; nevertheless, you should limit the amount of time as much as possible.

Here is where I should insert a diatribe on the benefits of using a Power Meter on the bike, but I think I've done that enough in prior posts. Whether or not you have a Power Meter, during an Ironman ride what you want to do is keep your total effort expended on the bike to a minimum (using superior fitness, however) to enable you to run well. One of the places people typically throw away effort is when climbing. At the base of the climb, they exert too much effort, which spikes your heart rate so much that you can't recover until you've crested the hill and then some. If you can control the spiking, you will have power to spare as you reach the crest, and then you can zoom on by the sorry bastards who blew their wad at the beginning of the climb.

Why is 85-95 such a magic number in triathlon? Because 90-95RPM is also accepted as a good run cadence. If you ride at 90-95RPM's most of the time and you run around the same cadence, it makes running off the bike a piece of cake! Really. It is just not that big of a deal. If you only average 70-85RPM on the bike and try and run, it's going to be a tough transition.

How do you work on getting your bike cadence in the range? Practice. You can do what are called "spinups." You've seen these in my bike workouts. Basically, you shift into a gear that allows you to pedal really fast, hold it for about 30", and then go back to a "regular" cadence for 30". Repeat as many times as necessary. If you've never done them, it's good to do a ladder of 105, 110, 115, 120, 125 RPM's, respectively, so you get a feel for what the different cadences feel like. This should be part of your bike warmup. You can do this riding outdoors, too. It gets your legs used to pedaling fast. If you don't have a cadence readout on your bike computer, be nice to yourself and get one. Or count your pedal strokes. I find it easier to "hit the number" if I can see it rising on the bike computer. By the way, all Power Meter devices have a cadence readout :)

Run Cadence
90-95RPM is generally accepted as a good run cadence. The faster your speed, the higher your cadence will go; but when you are warming up or running easy to steady ("steady" is about equivalent to your Ironman pace, if you are well trained and very fit), it should be 90-95. Again, some of you physiologically will fall into something higher or lower than this; that's fine as long as it accomplishes your running goals. But, if you are having trouble getting faster or running more economically (and Ironman running is certainly about economy if nothing else), then working on your cadence can really provide benefits.

The first thing you do is measure where you are now. You might be fine. What you do is count your left- or right-foot (whichever is your favorite foot) for 30" and double the count. If you're way below 90, odds are you can benefit from cadence work. If you're right at 90, you may still want to do form work weekly that helps you maintain your cadence. If you're over 100, you may actually be too high, but I wouldn't worry so much.

Let's say you are on the low end. How do you work your way up? Practice! When you first do it, your heart rate will elevate. This is normal. You are making your body do something it is not used to. It doesn't feel "right." You may be making yourself run faster than you are accustomed to. So elevated heart rate is normal. But trust me, after a few weeks, your heart rate will come right down to where it would be if you were running the same speed "before" you began cadence work.

You shouldn't work on your cadence for an entire run. A good way to start teaching yourself is after you've warmed up for 10', start out with 5' of strides work. Strides are about running with good form and good cadence. For now, we'll just focus on cadence. Run for 30", counting foot strikes, then walk for 30". Repeat 5 times. When you are running, think "quick feet." You should naturally shorten your stride somewhat in order to achieve the higher cadence. It will feel strange, but trust me, you'll get used to it. For each of the 5 repeats, focus on one other element of your run form. High knees, elbow drive, foot strike under body, pick foot straight up using hamstrings, etc. You can both do this and also count your foot strikes. You will eventually look forward to these! After a few weeks, increase the strides time to 10' of 30" strides, 30" walking.

Once you fall into a good cadence, you can switch to 30" strides, 45" walking. You will learn to run quickly with good form, and then once you lock onto that feeling, you finish up your run.

Inserting strides into a run does 2 things: it "reminds" you of running with good form and cadence, and it keeps the intensity of the run slightly down, which is good when you're in the last 12 weeks of Ironman training. If you're running 5-6 times a week, one or two might be strides sessions to keep your volume up, while lessening the probability of injury.

Once you lock into your good cadence, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to maintain it, and then when you do a random cadence check during a run, you can see if you're maintaining form. It's especially important as you do long runs that you are able to keep up your cadence. One of the secrets of not slowing down too much during an Ironman run is to keep your cadence up. As you tire, it's normal to want to shuffle more and more. The less you shuffle, the less you slow down! Everyone slows down somewhat as the Ironman marathon progresses; those who slow down the least usually do better overall.

As your fatigue builds during an Ironman run, typically your hip flexor (iliopsoas) muscles want to give out. 112 miles of biking can do that do you. OK, so maybe your stride has to shorten up a bit, but you can still keep the same cadence. One of the techniques I used during Ironman Canada 2 years ago, and that is something I use in any 1/2 Ironman or Ironman race now is I would count my foot strikes. When I grow tired, it helped to give myself a goal of "500 strikes before I take a walking break." Or 1,000, or whatever number I thought I could count up to. Invariably, I would lose count and just keep going longer than I thought I could. But I also then knew about how many steps I would get in a mile. Whatever, it worked like a charm. Even though I slowed down somewhat, by keeping tabs on my cadence, I didn't slow as much as I might have if I had just let myself revert to slogging through.

So the deal with run cadence is to establish it, work on it once or twice a week specifically, and then periodically check it, especially towards the end of your runs, to ensure that you are maintaining it. If you find your cadence dropping 5 or more RPM's by the end of your runs, it could mean several things: you started out too fast, your training is exceeding your fitness or you are just really tired. During Ironman training you will spend plenty of time running on "tired legs," in fact you will just plain be tired. By learning to run economically, though, you will slow down less than you would had you never given a second thought to good form and cadence.