Improving Your Bike Cadence...

Ride Lots!

A lot of folks here would disagree with your coach, or anyone who insists there is one specific cadence range that best fits everyone. I would say continue to ride (a lot more than what your logs are showing now) and you will naturally find your most efficient cadence. Oh, and you will also get faster on the bike.

BTW, the chainring you're in is irrelevant to cadence, what you need to look at is your total gearing, chainring and cassette.

I would drop one gear lower in the back and see if you can push the higher cadence without dying (or, split the difference to start).  Stay there for a little while until you get used to the feeling.  Gradually as you ride more, you'll ride the same route/cadence but in progressively higher gears. 

It's not a huge change to go from where you are to 90ish rpms as far as the ease of pedaling and gearing choices go.  It just feels weird

Good luck!

Edited by BikerGrrrl 2009-04-20 3:42 PM

Based on the available published data on this topic I am going to have to disagee with your coach; I don't understand what's the reasoning behind "you need to increase your cadence" and how that will make you a better cyclist. *IF* I was advicing you and knowing cycling seems to be your weakness, I would suggest you to ride and ride and ride as much as your schedule, needs, goals and fitness would allow you to. Sometimes it would be steady (notice that is not easy aka z1), others tempo (aka z3) and others threshold or VO2 (aka z4/z5).

Optimal cadence varies from athlete to athlete and what's more efficient for me might not be efficient for you. Also cadence is more a function of speed hence the more power you can generate in theory your cadence should increase hence if your fitness improves your natural self-selected cadence might as well improve. As long as your cadence fluctuates between 80 to 100 rpms in terms of efficiency your are probably using what's optimal for you.

Still if you or your coach prefer to ignore this evidence and want to increase your cadence you could accomplish that via: riding a fixed gear bike or doing drills at higher cadence (spin ups) while targeting certain power, just be aware that while efficiency is a treat we want to improve as it can directly impact performace, it is not something you can assume it will be positively impacted by "increasing your cadence"; in fact it might hinder it. The only way to be sure is to test it...

References:
1. Foss O and Hallen J. Cadence and performance in elite cyclists. Eur J Appl Physiol 93: 453-462, 2005.
2. Foss O and Hallen J. The most economical cadence increases with increasing workload. Eur J Appl Physiol 92: 443-451, 2004.
3. Mora-Rodriguez R and Aguado-Jimenez R. Performance at high pedaling cadences in well-trained cyclists. Med Sci Sports Exerc 38: 953-957, 2006.
4. Lucia, A., J. Hoyos, M. Perez, A. Santalla, and J.L. Chicharro. Inverse relationship between VO2max and economy/efficiency in world-class cyclists. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 34: 2079-2084, 2002.
5. Coyle EF. Improved muscular efficiency displayed as Tour de France champion matures. J Appl Physiol 98: 2191-2196, 2005.

Dude, why you gots to go and get all scientific there? I already told her Ride Lots!

truedat! Just throwing the info out there so the OP doesn't get the impression I am trying to disagree his/her coach just because

I am in the same position as I have been told, not by a coach but by a fellow rider, that I should ride in a smaller gear and increase my cadence. I ride pretty much exclusively in the biggest ring except going up a steep or long hill, and I am comfortable with this and feel I am getting stronger every time I ride. I just did a 29:01 10 mile TT during a race cycling in a big gear and was very pleased with that. However, my friend says that that is a "pro gear" and that I won't be able to maintain that for 50+ miles. My response is, that's BS, I can and will maintain it with just more riding and training. To me, it seems like one should train at whatever is going to make you go faster.

Ignoring the question of whether or not you should be forcing your cadence, I can tell you what I did. Regardless of how hard you are trying to work for the session, just adjust the gearing as necessary to whatever lets you turn your target cadence at that effort level. Don't worry about your speed while learning the new skill. If you're working too hard to hold 90, 95, or whatever, then shift to an easier gear. Conversely, if holding the target cadence seems too easy, try going up a gear and see if your effort is still within the range you want. And, as was mentioned already, to make it stick, ride lots. As you become more comfortable at the new cadences, you will likely be able to start working harder at those rpms.

I don't think it hurts to be comfortable at a wider range of cadences, and once you are you may find yourself naturally using higher and lower cadences as the situations vary. So, I would vote for your first option.

Edit: more on using a wider range of cadences here.

Edited by Micawber 2009-04-20 4:20 PM