cleats, killed quads and pulling up



bikeguy

New Member
May 31, 2004
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Recently since it got a bit warm here in Finland (like 10 degrees one day, I went out with a short sleeved jersey, usually I wear a coat) I've gone out training without cleats on for a training ride at about 20-25 km/hr. I did this three days last week and my quads were nailed and got sore and I'm taking 4 days off from cycling. When I wear cleats I don't get this sore quads not with this kind of volume (most of my heavy training is still done indoors, going through slush and 1 cm deep gravel isn't safe at high speeds and doesn't tax my aerobic system but does tax my quads!)). I'm figuring I'm using my hams and hip flexors more with cleats on and when I went cleatless last week my poor quads just got too much stress. I also noticed that hills in particular just kill me without cleats. I had a nice discussion with Ric Stern about how cleats are just used to (just) unweight the pedals in elite class cyclists and that they don't pull up during the recovery phase (endurance) although I'm not clear on how much sprint cyclists pull up. In my own personal experience I've noticed that indeed I don't pull up much during long rides but during a short sprint I pull up big time, if I don't my pk speed falls 5 km/hr) Nevertheless my quads died during what should have been a moderate session of about 1-1.5 hrs outdoors.

Anybody else notice anything like this when switching from riding with cleats all the time to riding without them? Do you competitive cyclists out there always ride with cleats?