Today’s ride was a choice between the Zwift Academy 2023 Workout #2 (Shorter) or SST. So I went with a third choice, two x 15 minutes at FTP efforts.
I figured the SST ride would be beneficial for sure, but setting a baseline as to how it feels to ride at FTP at a lower cadence would be more useful over the longer term. I didn’t feel I’d get as much value out of doing the Shorter ZA workout today.
![](https://i0.wp.com/cyclingindoors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/low-cadence-baseline-1.jpg?resize=825%2C464&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/cyclingindoors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/low-cadence-baseline-7.jpg?resize=825%2C464&ssl=1)
As ever with FTP workouts, this one was pretty tough going.
In both efforts, the first 5 minutes or so was fine. After that it got harder.
I’m all too aware that I find lower cadence work to be far more tiring and taxing than the higher cadence stuff. I’ve spent ~3 years trying to work comfortably at 95rpm, only to find out recently that may have not been quite the best strategy.
![](https://i0.wp.com/cyclingindoors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/low-cadence-baseline-14.jpg?resize=825%2C464&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/cyclingindoors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/low-cadence-baseline-15.jpg?resize=825%2C464&ssl=1)
The real challenge today was keeping that cadence down. In the first block I was aiming for 85rpm. And mentally I wanted to lower that in the second block to 80rpm.
I’d say I mostly succeeded at this. Certainly I found that there was a noticable difference between 83rpm and 82rpm on my turbo. It’s as though at that point, a sudden uptick in resistance kicked in. Fighting the urge to spin faster was an on-going battle.
![](https://i0.wp.com/cyclingindoors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/low-cadence-baseline-16.jpg?resize=825%2C464&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/cyclingindoors.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/low-cadence-baseline-17.jpg?resize=825%2C464&ssl=1)
I’m not sure if it’s simply because 2x 15m FTP intervals is tiring, or made more so because of the lower cadence, but I am definitely feeling it more in my legs even now than usual. Maybe I’m just paying attention to it.
Anyway, a good session. A challenge, for sure, but seemingly worthwhile and I now know I am more than capable of doing these repeat efforts at lower cadences. The next step is to try and crank out more power at these cadences. But one step at a time.