Date
|
Route
|
Course
|
Ride Time
|
Total Time
|
Distance
|
Avg Speed
|
Altitude
|
Max Altitude
|
Max Speed
|
Odometer
|
05/05/14
|
Rose Bowl Laps
|
Flat
|
00:55:27
|
00:59:43
|
16.4
|
17.7
|
591
|
953
|
31.1
|
32327
|
05/06/14
|
Rose Bowl Laps
|
Flat
|
00:55:39
|
01:00:10
|
16.4
|
17.7
|
731
|
959
|
29.2
|
32344
|
05/07/14
|
Rose Bowl Laps
|
Flat
|
00:54:40
|
00:57:18
|
16.4
|
18.0
|
706
|
936
|
28.7
|
32360
|
05/08/14
|
Rose Bowl Laps
|
Flat
|
00:54:54
|
00:59:42
|
16.4
|
17.9
|
676
|
929
|
28.7
|
32377
|
05/09/14
|
Rose Bowl Laps
|
Flat
|
00:53:49
|
00:58:22
|
16.4
|
18.3
|
723
|
966
|
31.1
|
32394
|
05/10/14
|
Lida - Griffith Park Loop
|
Rolling
|
02:08:26
|
02:18:26
|
34.8
|
16.3
|
2286
|
1345
|
36.5
|
32428
|
Total Time
|
06:42:55
|
Total Distance
|
116.8
|
Total Climb
|
5713
|
Drill week means not trying to break any records on my courses. You can't always use the same muscle groups, especially when the road turns up, so you need to practice changing your position on the bike and concentrating on using other muscles in your legs to give your hammer time muscles a break. It's not just concentrating on pulling up on the pedals from the dead spot, though that is important, but also concentrating on different muscles in your core and upper body. One thing I need to work on more is when my hands are on top of the bars with my elbows bent so I'm more aero, and I definitely feel the burn in my lower triceps trying to get that little kick at the bottom of my pedal stroke. This calls for more push-ups on my next round of strength training.
Steve Hogg actually makes a case for avoiding deliberately pulling up, and I generally find his stance about pedaling technique very sensible. I know a lot of guys also advise against pulling up because of the risk of unclipping at bad times, and I'm fairly sure there's some papers out there about muscular patterns as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say you shouldn't be changing your position and shift load over different muscles, but I usually limit that to shifting forward/aft (that will affect the rate of recruitment of the anterior and posterior chain), adjusting cadence and sometimes using the so-called 'scraping' movement.
Link to Hogg's article if you're interested: http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/bikefit/2011/05/pedalling-technique-what-is-best/
Yeah, the "pulling up" is bad phrasing, but I don't know what to call it when my foot is in back end of the stroke and I use the muscle that's in the back of the thigh to bend my knee quicker. Like kicking my heel at my butt. I used to do the boot-scraper, but I found it gave me tendinitis on the outside of my right knee, and I even had to sit out for 7 months because of the pain. My PS3 got lots of love during that time. When I got back on the bike, I decided to change my whole cadence philosophy. I used to cruise at a really slow 65 rpm, but I figured that's what got me in trouble, and was expensive on my bike chain. I've been retraining my body to cruise at 90 rpm, and that's taken a good 2 years to get used to that. I'm only now starting to feel all those little helper muscles work like they used to at the slower rpm. It's a work in progress, but I haven't felt any pain in my knee in about 2 years, so it seems to be working.
DeleteI suspect your tendinitis might have been caused by adjustments you were making subconsciously when trying to do that movement, it's really hard to keep track of what you're actually doing, while you're doing it, unless you have someone watching or better yet, one or more cameras pointed on you (if you have a trainer and haven't tried it already, I'd strongly suggest some experimentation)
ReplyDelete65? whoa! I found that my naturally selected cadence changes with my current predicament (both training status and exhaustion level), actually most of its analytical value stems from this.
Are we talking about flats here? because 2 years seems a long time for that. I'm wondering if maybe your saddle was/is set a little too high. When I started getting back into cycling, I was also sitting too high, and compensating in a variety of ways. Hogg, again, has interesting thoughts to share on this matter, but I don't want to sound like either Mr Know It All (I am not) or a broken record here, so if you're interested just let me know.
I got used to the faster cadence in a couple of months on the flats, but it's taken longer to feel good about the new rhythms of breathing, flexing, and then applying more power on heavier gears. I used to crank a huge gear, which stretched my chain and wore out my gears too, but the higher, smoother cadence has been easier on my joints and my equipment. I've slowly been building my strength so I can keep moving up to heavier gears as I keep my higher cadence rhythm, and that part is on it's second year now. Still feeling good and healthy.
Delete