What if you can't spin?

GrandeAnse,

Sorry, got to this thread a bit late but here are some comments, FWIW.

I'm a roadie, and my cadence "comfort zone" is 95-100rpm, where I can sit quite happily for a number of hours. Only had my fixed for a couple of weeks, but 48/18 feels absolutely spot on for me for everything from daily commuting to 60+mile rides - 95rpm equate to ~20mph. I really can't imagine anyone would want anything bigger for regular riding, unless they were nailing it on a short commute, or TT or something. (I also have 48/16 which I'm using on fast short training rides).

Anyway, spinning is not limited by lung function. Absolutely no way. (I also have a roadie friend with asthma and spinning is not a problem for him). However, it does place more stress on your your cardiovascular system, instead of your legs, that's why it's favoured by endurance cyclists and people with dodgy knees! It's interesting that you're finding cardiovascular fitness a limiter when you spin and you say you have strong legs. And you're right in saying that this will stop you going fast and mashing is going to knack your knees, it's definitely something to work on improving. Can I suggest some other points?

First, the obvious one, is that you should improve your cardiovascular fitness. You probably know how to do this already, but long, low intensity rides built up gradually is the way to go.

Second, another obvious one, is that if you want to spin, you have to train you neuromuscular system to spin, it doesn't just happen - the muscles have to learn how to fire together with the correct timing, at the required speed. If you lack fitness, then this will mean you going really slow so you can keep your heart rate under check in order to maintain a higher cadence for long enough for your body to adapt. I can quite imagine that, in your current state, spinning is burning a lot of energy and is very inefficient (hence the cardio vascular load) because your muscles are wasting a lot of effort by not working together well. You will probably find that, as your neuromuscular system adapts, this wasted effort will diminish and you'll magically appear fitter, aside from any improvements in cardio-vascular fitness or strength.

Third, relating to the last point, is your muscle strength. Turning a pedal a full revolution is a complex movement that recruits quite a range of muscles, large and small, if you're going to do it smoothly (the key to high cadence pedalling), not just your prime movers. I'm willing to bet that you have some large imbalances going on: despite strength in, say, the quads, it could very well be that your hip flexors/gluteals are quite underdeveloped. This is really common, especially if you have bad posture or are overweight. As a result, you don't actually have the musculature to pull off high cadence cycling. You body "fakes" pedaling smoothly at low cadence by relying on the prime movers to provide the push/pull over a fraction of the full rotation, and then the pedal "carries" your leg over the rest. This isn't possible at high cadence, the lack of full muscle recruitment becomes sharply apparent. The solution: more high cadence pedalling, again done in such a way that you can sustain it from a cardio-vascular perpective for sufficient time. Another complementary training method: pilates, which will train a lot of those smaller muscles and iron out imbalances.

Everyone can spin at 100rpm, it's just training. If you're sick of being overtaken, do something about it ;-)

Hope this helps!

Courant

racist