53x12 intervals

Had a chance to ride with one of the local pros. He was telling me one of his off season workouts was 2 hours in a 53x12 gear at whatever cadence he could muster.

Any thoughts?


(no response needed from Ric Stern, already know this is stupid just like CTC/LA training....)

I'd say questions, rather than thoughts, since you haven't given enough information to be helpful to anyone at this point.

Did you ask why he rode like that, or what he felt that he gained from it? Why does he choose that particular gear? What power-level / HR / RPE or any other measure of intensity does he shoot for? What cadence is he usually able to maintain? How often does he do it? Why does he only do it during the off-season? What kind of terrain does he do that workout in? Does he have an 11-tooth cog on his cassette?

Some of our local Pro and NZ Track Team riders use SE training on an erg to work on pedaling technique. With the fan from the erg you get a noticeable variance in noise if not pedaling correctly. They do 20min efforts at 40-50 rpm and work at around 85%-90% of max HR. It really helps build their strength and power for the track and road.

Hamish Ferguson
Cycling Coach

Maybe I've been brainwashed by Ric and co, but this makes no sense. Can you explain further?

Sorry Frenchyge, thought you were over in Paris helping out the police.

he felt he gained added strength in quads and on 3-6 pedal force. i think power level was 300-320 with 50-60 cadence. he did this every other week during offseason. said his legs were pretty much wasted next day. terrain is flat to small rollers. no 11 cog on his training bike. I will be interested in your expert comments.

Nope.
<----------- Kansas City, see?

Oh, was there a question to your post? I thought you were just name-dropping about your buddy the Pro.

Dang-typed a good reply then somehow got rid of it.

Have you read "gyming to improve power?" Pedal force even in elite road cyclists is fairly low.

300 watts at a cadence of 55 with effective pedaling range of 170 (changed from the ac default of 70) is about 70 pounds per leg of effective pedal force. I doubt this does much for strength. It is probably a good workout since he is working at a high power output for an hour (know what his threshold is?) but would be more effective if done at his preferred cadence.

Low RPM, hard effort, big gears... sounds like specific resistance training on the bike. I like it better than doing squats. If your knees can support it.

Sounds like the workout is a concerted effort to train the muscles for maximal downstroke force in lieu of a circular pedalling motion. I know when I'm forced into a slow cadence my stroke gets more choppy and heavily weighted on the downstrokes.

Of course, if that's the case it would support what Ric's been saying all along about elite riders' pedalling motion and downstroke force (and would contradict what Carmichael says on my CTS workout tape), but shhhhhhh...... let Blkhotrod think he figured it out first.

When using the BT-ATS erg...

http://www.usauzziesales.com/trainin...em_details.htm

The fan at the rear makes a constant noise if one has a good pedalling technique. If your pedalling is choppy the fan makes a varied noise. Local NZ Track riders claim doing SE work (40-50rpm) has smoothed out their pedalling greatly.

It also has helped them to ride bigger gears on the track.

The National Track Coach has advised to be careful when doing SE work not to overdo it.

Hamish Ferguson
Cycling Coach

This type of strength training would be much better for you're cycling compared to gym work as it is only using cycling specific muscles. A bit of extra power and muscle never hurt anyone and as long as you are spinning youre legs out at say 150 rpm as a recovery afterwards i would think this training would be very beneficial. I heard many australian riders do similar work at 50-60 rpm up hills like buffalo, hotham etc. I think if you incorporated spinning in the workout you could get the best of both worlds?

Interesting thread. I can't speak about many details of the BT-ATS, but did have the opportunity to sit in on a presentation about it and then participate in some testing on it. I can definitely see how it would allow riders to use bigger gears on the track, and have experienced that fan noise that changes based on pedaling technique. One of the other cyclists who used it with me actually got to do a 53-12 type of workout, but not for 2 hours...still, it was a pretty great workout, and I can see how a workout like that may be useful.

As usual you have no expert advice or expertise, in fact you probably spend more time nit picking this forum then you do on a bike is my guess. And everyone can see your from KC, the joke flew 38,000 ft over your head i'm afraid.

Thanks for shedding some light on this workout. I think he said he could get up to about 375-380 watts when racing. He was doing this for 2 hours. I got the impression that he couldn't do this for 2 hours at normal cadence of 90-95. Thank you again, I apologize for asking these elementary questions but I don't have the background and calculational tools you guys have.

If it's expert advice you seek, then you might start by not alienating the moderators and other coaches and physiologists that frequent this forum.