I felt very strong during this workout, starting just before the tallest peak, where I hit Zone 7. I was spinning very fast, over 105 rpm, and the mid-40s resistance felt so easy that I actually wondered if something was wrong with the Peloton bike. Is the belt slipping? Is the electromagnet still working? I added on more resistance to make sure that I still could, and the bike definitely got harder to pedal. I checked again during the cool-down (a 5-minute class taken right after this one) and there is nothing askew with the bike.
I've been working on high cadence for months. That is the reason for the daily spin-ups to max out the meter at 199 rpm. I think the very high cadence (108 rpm average for the entire workout) is changing my perception of the effort required to hit the higher (400w plus) intensities. The easy feeling didn't last long, but it's encouraging.
Fast feet will shift more of the workload onto my heart, but this feels much easier than pushing more resistance with slower feet to achieve the same output. How fast should I aspire to spin? 110 rpm? 115? Beats me, but I'll continue to work on pedaling faster. Once I hit that sweet spot, where my natural cadence plateaus after getting as high as possible, I'll focus more on muscular strength/endurance.
Original workout: https://members.onepeloton.com/profile/workouts/ca9f782191ca4429a01c6e2f5173fe96