This simple video demonstration of how varying your pedal speed can affect your overall performance on the bike. There is a sort of “best” pedal rotation speed that won’t hurt your knees (on the low pedal speed end) or make more work for your cardio system at the high pedal speed end. Shifting gears to maintain the magic number of 85 pedal rotations per second.
Sometimes professional cyclists like a bit higher, 90rpm, cadence. But, happily enough, the recommended pedal speed is “kind of” close to what we tend to pedal normally when we’re applying power in order to keep up a decent speed; practicing getting your pedal speed up to 85 will help to make it seem more natural.
If you’ve got a “cadence” meter on the bike then you can just look at the number on the meter. Otherwise you can judge how fast you’re pedaling by keeping a song with that cadence going in your head; look up “music with a beat of 85” and pick your fav. I just happened to mention a couple that you probably know but there are many songs that go about that beat.
You can start tomorrow!