Week 41 - Day Three: Cadence

BIKE: Eastwood
TIME THERE: 25 min.
TIME BACK: n/a - got a ride home from my new man - any excuse to see me, I guess ;)
WEATHER: overcast, 9C, 15km/hr headwinds there
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt
NOTES:

I recently read a blog comment that suggested the ideal cadence is 80-100 rpm. I'm not really sure what that looks like, but it sounds like it's a whole lot faster than the cadence I've been keeping so far in my bike-commuting efforts. So, this morning, in an effort to ease the soreness that's been seeping into my thighs lately, reduce my worries about having overly-muscular thighs, and get closer to an ideal rpm, I tried biking in a lower gear and at a higher cadence today.

I found my ride to be simultaneously easier (i.e., my thighs didn't ache and burn with the effort) while it felt like a better workout (with my legs pumping faster, my heart rate felt sustained at a higher level for longer). Unfortunately, what suffered was my time - I took 25 minutes to get to work when I've been beating that by 2-3 minutes most days. It's not a big difference, certainly not enough of one to make me want to revert back to a higher gear again, but I have to admit it did bug me a little bit. Combine that with generally feeling tired and hungry these days (I'm gonna chalk that - along with my insatiable desire for sweets - up to PMS), and saddle sores that just seem to be getting worse and worse, and you've got yourself a bit of a cranky bike commuter.

I'm going to switch Mike's saddle onto Eastwood tonight and see if that makes a difference. Here's hoping! There's really only so much abuse one nether-region can take . . .