Monday, October 4, 2010

My optimal cadence range for the Kilo and Flying 200

What is my optimal cycling cadence range for the kilo and flying 200 meter time trial?

Honestly I really don't know. But it would appear that at my current level of fitness, age and past performance - my optimal cadence range seems to be between 95 to 120 rpms for the Kilo and flying 200 meter. It seems like I prefer the lower cadences and larger gears, but this leads to muscular fatigue.

I read in the US Cycling manual, that a track cyclist should be able to maintain about 133 rpms for a duration of 7 minutes in a typical endurance race gear.....huh?

I guess as we get older the cardiovascular system is not as good as when we were "newer" -  like a new car engine versus a car with 100,000 miles on the engine. Maybe that is why I choose to go with bigger gears and shorter events.Optimal cadence is a trade off between cycling economy, power output and the development of fatigue.

For me to achieve my times in the Kilo and Flying 200 meter, then I would have to increase my cadence range to between 110 - 125 rpms. Also depending on the distance of the event I would then have to pick the right gear which would allow me to achieve this average cadence range.

For the Flying 200 meter it would have to be a gear between a 98" to 108" depending on the line I take, type of track and weather conditions.

For the Kilo it would have to be a gear between 92 to 96 depending on type of track and weather conditions.

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