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Zwifters

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Yorkshire Pie Feb 2021 4:16pm, 23 Feb 2021 14,018 posts	0 Yorkshire Pie I find C OK - I think being a similar weight makes it easier, and she always tends to have a big group. I tried to do an easy ride with D and was doing the off the front/out of the back thing. I've never tried B, but once managed a minute or two with A - not deliberately, I was doing a 5 minute test and she popped out in front of me going at just the right pace for me to try to hold on. She then turned off so I had to do the rest of the test on my own. I'd quite like to try B for more of a sweetspot effort but I'd need a warm up first and have never bumped into it at the right moment.
larkim Feb 2021 4:59pm, 23 Feb 2021 13,588 posts	0 larkim I've just realised that "pace partner" didn't just mean "phone a friend who's also on zwift and ride together"! Doh!!
Gobi Feb 2021 8:08pm, 23 Feb 2021 73,312 posts	0 Gobi LOL Larks
larkim Feb 2021 8:41pm, 23 Feb 2021 13,589 posts	0 larkim Tech can be annoying can't it. Tried out the pace partners - being good, I headed for Diesel which worked OK. Got a bit bored after 5 minutes with HR not getting above 95 due to the draft etc. So thought I'd see what Cadence was like. But despite trying 7 or 8 times I didn't see the pacer, no big groups came haring past. Got annoyed and decided to ride the optional workout instead. Is there some "knack" to getting picked up by a pacer? Had to resort to the iPad rather than laptop to run Zwift, and it turns out it doesn't seem to like the Garmin sensors and they dropped out a few times. That'll teach me not to use the laptop (though it was tied up with a deep malware scan initiated by work's group policy). And then the optional workout was all at a high cadence, which wasn't what I expected. A real question - what's the point of high cadence work (c.100rpm) So much higher effort than a nice comfortable 75-80!!
MudMeanderer Feb 2021 8:51am, 24 Feb 2021 2,056 posts	0 MudMeanderer High cadence should work your CV system more than your muscles. Theoretically you can keep your heart and lungs at a moderate intensity for a lot longer than you could if grinding the same power. Particularly on hilly or undulating routes that can leave your muscles fresher for later on if gearing dictates you have to grind up a hill, or keep over the gear on smaller rollers. It can also be very useful in a fast bunch; it's easier to consistently close gaps if it doesn't require a big jump in torque to do so. It can feel tough at first though to keep your legs spinning fast, especially when solo. In some ways it's easier to do when the intensity is high, but it can be useful to train your legs to be used to spinning fast at low intensity to help hardwire the muscle memory. I gather it's not as common on the road, but trackies and bmxers practice very low resistance cadence drills, sometimes accelerating their legs to 160rpm+.
larkim Feb 2021 9:23am, 24 Feb 2021 13,594 posts	0 larkim It's funny because I would have thought my CV was far better than my leg strength but 180w at 70rpm is so much more comfortable than at 100rpm. I suppose it might also be an oddity of the trainer; I don't know how zwift accommodates this through its power profile for my trainer, but it might be that I'm actually putting in more watts at the higher cadence despite the onscreen graphics telling me it's the same. I suppose only a smart calibrated trainer would tell me that. I can see the logic of doing something which doesn't cost your legs as much and trains the CV system though. Maybe my CV isn't as good as I think it is (in comparison to leg strength anyway).
jda Feb 2021 9:30am, 24 Feb 2021 9,502 posts	0 jda Not perhaps exactly the same but I also think of it as a bit analogous to how better/more serious runners tend to use a higher cadence than more casual joggers. Most of them find it just works better overall. But it’s not compulsory and there is variation between riders.
Big_G Feb 2021 9:31am, 24 Feb 2021 708 posts	0 Big_G Strange Larkim, as I'm the other way around. Pedalling at 70rpm seems much of a grind compared with spinning at 100 for me, which I guess means I need to get stronger in the legs....but I thought I already had strong legs!
MudMeanderer Feb 2021 9:51am, 24 Feb 2021 2,057 posts	0 MudMeanderer Larkim: It can take a while to get used to spinning faster. I know if I've done a winter of cx where the heavier terrain slows the cadence, it feels laboured picking the cadence back up when returning to the road. It's considered more efficient to try to sustain a high cadence, but you need to have spent time training it. For a while it may feel much harder work than pushing a big gear slowly, but the muscle firing pattern will become more ingrained. And it should mean you have less dramatic explosions - when your quads go 'no' can be rather harder to push through! Of course there can be exceptions. Tony Martin (former world TT champ) famously uses a lower cadence than most top level time trialists. You may ultimately revert to a low cadence, but it's worth spending a bit of time seeing if you can get used to a higher cadence.
Chrisull Feb 2021 10:16am, 24 Feb 2021 17,257 posts	0 Chrisull larks - I'm with Big G, JDA and the rest. When I started it was WTF is this 100rpm crap. BUT once I started doing the FTP tests and they like say "now bring it up to 95", and after 15 minutes, I'm like "oh this is nice", like a cat with a fresh pouch of cat food just opened. In fact when I slow to 70-80 now that's when it feels like a grind. This also goes for running too, running at a slightly higher cadence than you are used to suits/is good for the majority of runners: hvmn.com