cadence

[Jersey_Girl_Rides]

What size cassette and chainrings do you have? If you're running a 53-39 and a 12-25 cassette spinning on a hill is gonna be tough.

I have a compact 34/50 with a 12-25 cassette.

Hills are going to be tough for me either way - I am getting back to road riding after 14+ months off and a long winter of inactivity

 

[Ant]

I have a compact 34/50 with a 12-25 cassette.

Hills are going to be tough for me either way - I am getting back to road riding after 14+ months off and a long winter of inactivity

That's pretty close to a triple then so you should be good. Really try and spin on the hills. That is where you will feel the biggest difference. You will get way out of breath before your legs give out. Also, when climbing, try sitting back on your seat a bit more then usual. It will help you use the "up" part of your pedal more which helps. And don't forget to RELAX.

 

[ArmyOfNone]

just stick another water bottle in your middle jersey pocket. all the times i've done that, i've never had one bounce out. with three bottles, you should have more than 72 oz. you'll aslo sweat less without the camelback, so you shouldn't need as much. i posit that those 72oz in bottles will last you just as long as 100oz in a camelback because of the decrease in sweat.

Good call w/ the third bottle. Do you use a regular sized bottle? I have seen ppl do it but was always worried on the trails that it would bounce right out.

This kind of training is not easy. I got into a rhythm after awhile, and I have been very conscientious of keeping my pedal strokes smooth, trying to spin vs. hammer. But high cadence spinning is weird. My legs would come around so quickly sometimes my butt would take little hops off the saddle. I would drop gears when this started to happen but sometimes it still caught me by surprise.

Keep working with the cadence. I was the same way. I would bounce all over around 90 rpms, now i start to bounce a bit around 115-120. Spinning on the road makes things fun. Not so much like torture.