Stage 8 – Blender

  • Duration: 1:44:26
  • Power: 314 watts
  • Average Cadence: 84
  • TSS: 140.5
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  2:19 pm on Saturday, February 1

Confession – I totally ignored the cadence queues on this ride. Before you write me off as a cheater, let me explain…

You don’t show up to play a round of golf and monkey around with your swing on the course. You do that on the driving range. In practice.

This being a Tour (race), it isn’t the time for me to go off and try to do something I’m not good at, especially when my main objective for the day is just to keep up and not get dropped. This video calls for long periods of high-cadence work.

But it doesn’t make sense to do that on race day when you can pull the same power at a lower cadence and keep the heart rate under control…right?

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_8_blender

The upside is that my first attempt at Blender and several days doing the Tour of Sufferlandria have shown me I’m weak at long periods with high cadence. It’s something I’m going to work on (that means doing this ride A LOT) in the future. I’m well aware that riding at a high cadence evens my power distribution out through the pedal stroke, and that’s something I want.

But I’ve also heard some really knowledgeable triathletes talk about the fact that everyone has a natural cadence, and it’s better to work off strengths than weaknesses. I think that’s somewhere in the mid-80s for me–data analysis coming to verify that.

Strangely, I get the same results running. As long as I stay in the mid 80s, I’m good. But my HR blows up when I try to run 90 rpm–that magic number everyone is supposed to hit.

I’m beginning to think recommended cadences are a lot like BMI.

One more day!

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