Did I just find my ideal cadence?

[Ginantonicus]

I've been riding for eight months now and every ride I have done has been at a cadence of between 80 to 95ish and my legs would start hurting well before my lungs. The we had the club race today. I was first rider off (it was handicapped) and was by myself for the entire race (30km). The race started into a head wind of about 35kph where i kept my usual cadence. Then turned a corner and got a tail wind so I pick my cadence up to 95-110ish and kept it there until the finish and surprise surprise my legs didn't hurt, but my lungs sure did. Even on small up hill sections (eg 100m) I was able to hold my speed (which never happens). My question is . Is 95-110 rpm my ideal cadence or was it just the ideal cadence for the conditions? (eg strong wind) or both?.

Forgot to mention the race then turned back into the wind i kept the cadence up and still my legs were not hurting. (too much)

[rkelsen]

Tail winds help. A lot.

I live in the North and work in the South, so I rarely get tail winds on my commute. It's usually head or cross winds for me.

Scored a ripper of a tail wind last Tuesday. Slashed 6 minutes off my PB.

[toolonglegs]

[foo on patrol]

Aerobic fitness comes into it when you start spinning at higher rpm.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Aerobic fitness comes into it when you start spinning at higher rpm.

Aerobic fitness comes into it no matter the cadence.

[open roader]

Give me higher cadence and shorter gears to push anytime......... but that's just me, we are all different. I have an occasional ride partner who uses only taller gears (25T cog max - I use a 29 T cog) He sits /stands and grinds uphill, I sit and spin uphill, we both feel we have pushed close to our limits but to look at our modus operandi we may as well be on different planets, I blow up half way up the hill using his method, he blows up a little further up the hill using my method.......

You have a casette full of gears, shift one up or one down compared to 'normal' on your training rides and hold that combo for a while over the same part of your run given the same wind conditions etc and see how you perform and recover using slightly higher and lower cadence levels. I've never raced bicycles before but I'd not want to finding my limits / comfort zones in a race.

[JV911]

TLL,

do you prefer pickled or smoked?

[ColinOldnCranky]

I imagine that the ideal cadence is what you do in the highest gear possible without straining your heart with excessive blood pressure from muscle-constricted leg arteries. I may be totally off but, on the odd chance that I am not then how you determine it is beyond me.

[MDL]

I was a climber that used to sit down, now i'm a climber that going to be standing up all the time. It's just up to you, were all different.

MDL