Pedaling and Cadence with Julia Oh

This is something that should be worked on constantly and has a lot of payoff for the lazy rider. The point of good technique is to have a vehicle to channel your fitness into. If it's not an efficient vehicle, you're wasting your legs. I am a classic example of this. Last fall and winter I piled on the weight lifting, but I was slow. SLOW. So Ed got me on the rollers, and what I worked on for a protracted time was pedal stroke and leg speed.

The circle of your pedal stroke being a clock, the idea is to apply force perpendicularly to the cranks at all times. On the road or on a trainer, think about applying power through each quadrant of the pedal stroke. 2-4 o’clock (down); 5-7 (back); 8-10 (up); and 11-1 (over the top). I think power is predominantly lost when pulling back and up, and kicking forward over the top.

Some exercises to improve your pedal stroke:

One legged isolation work on a trainer. Keep your leg speed low, ~50-70 rpms, and at a moderate resistance, pedal very constantly; i.e., no slamming on the downstroke and letting momentum carry your leg back up. One way to find dead spots in your stroke (where you’re not applying force) is to listen for an even sound from the trainer. You may find your hip flexors aching; full sit-ups and leg raises can help strengthen those.

High rpm intervals. These can be done on rollers or on the road. Stick it in a low gear and flail away. Start at 30 seconds at top leg speed (just before you start bouncing), then 2:30 at 100-120 rpms for recovery, :30 on, etc. John's addendum is to work particularly on the acceleration up to max leg speed (you should reach it in 3 or 4 pedal strokes). This means that you have to really turn the pedals over, not slam it to the bottom (and fall off the rollers).

Fixed gears: you can’t not pedal. The principle of this is perplexing to me but it's supposed to be a classic for improving leg speed and pedal stroke.

John’s tempo riding. Basically getting in a small gear and pushing as high an rpm that you can maintain over for long periods of time. None of this ugly flail five seconds, coast, flail again stuff. If you can’t maintain 120 rpms for half an hour, kick it down to 100 and work up from there. In group rides, choose a lower gear than everyone else and keep up in it.

My own: On the hills and at very low rpms I get hyper conscious about my pedal stroke. You need every bit of power you can get on the hills, and kicking over the top and pulling back at the bottom are places where the extra bit makes a difference.

A word on cadence in normal riding.

John and Ed recommend maintaining 100-120 rpms as a steady state leg speed. High cadence tends to tax your cardiovascular system more, but big gear pushing leads to more muscle fatigue/lactic acid buildup. At the beginning of rides or races, try to spin more and save big gears for the critical smackdown later. Be aware of terrain changes. For short rollers, gearing one down and maintaining your cadence can be more efficient than getting out of the saddle or bogging down in the gear and losing speed (on the other hand, accelerating that big gear gets you over those hills quick). Down hills, gear up and maintain your cadence (duh).

You can go remarkably fast in a small gear with high leg speed. The fast guys put it in a big gear with high leg speed.