Any tips on cadence? Having a hard time determine if I should be targeting a number, or if power is worth the investment - currently unavailable to me off my kicker core 2
I’m surprised that the trainer doesn’t report cadence. It’s not perfect AFAIK they all do some math based on power changes to infer cadence and report that. What is your trainer connected to?
As far as what to target, I’ve heard that 80 - 90 rpm is what most people feel comfortable with. I find myself sticking somewhere in there unless I’m out of the saddle, doing strength work, or sprinting.
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I have cadence available - but not power. sorry if that was unclear.
Kickr Core 2 doesn’t provide power data? That data is pretty critical, especially for indoor rides where you don’t have pace. Otherwise you’re relying on heart rate (which lags) and RPE
Your Kickr Core 2 does power. You likely just need to just pair it differently.
Personally: power is worth the investment, you can get single-sided pedals or crank meters for under $300, dual sided for $500-600+ (measuring power in both legs so you can see any discrepancies). Athletica does prescribe some lower cadence sessions to ensure variety, but overall power is where you can really measure and see improvement. Personally knowing my Critical Power / FTP and then exceeding it in the 30:30 HIIT sessions shows the biggest strength and speed improvements!
Cadence can also be very individual - I personally like to target 90-92 for some reason as my race pace, but also throw in some 40-60 for low and a lot of time in the 70-90 range.
In the meantime, while you don’t have power metrics, I’d say do 10-20% of time at lower cadence (feels heavy on the legs) and 10-20% high cadence (legs feel super light) and the rest in the cadence you naturally gravitate too, likely in the 70-80 as someone else mentioned.
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