Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

I know not everyone does a long ride in their week. But if you do, that’s the one to try and spin through I think.

I did a long ride today, and pushed my cadence the whole way. It was good - I found it surprisingly easy to adapt my shifting habits by looking at the cadence readout and aiming for 80 and 90. I felt pretty fresh deep into the ride, more so than I would have if I had ground my way up the hills as per usual.

I wondered whether I would actually benefit from an easier gear (than 36/28), because going up two long and steep climbs on my route I found myself in the granny gear and my cadence dropping below where I wanted it.

You can see from the graph that my cadence really slumped during the steep mid-section on Mam Nick

It turns out I can climb out of the saddle at 80rpm, it's not necessarily fatiguing, just different.

Bonus lfgss rep if you do it fixed on a light gear (it does help).

I would love to have a fixed gear bike again, but I don't know whether I could do much with it it in Yorkshire/Peaks. Maybe with a flip-flop hub and two brakes.