Training Your Bike Cadence in the Off-Season
by USAT Coach AJ Johnson
Are you amazed at Lance Armstrong’s cadence? Do you try and achieve that same cadence on your rides? If so, should you? There has been a great amount paid to Lance’s high cadence, but does that cadence translate to better performance for triathletes?
When we see Lance at the Tour the focus is on his tremendously high cadence. But it is not just the rate of RPM’s that get Lance up the mountains. Force on the pedals also plays a large role in getting Lance to the summit first. Remember that when Lance first started out in cycling he was a masher. He was able to muscle his way to victories in one day races and stages of the Tour De France. By pushing a big gear at a low cadence. Doing this developed Lance’s force and muscle endurance. When he started to work on his now famous high cadence his aerobic threshold caught up with his muscular endurance, a balance was struck and he became one of the best cyclists ever.
So, what does this mean for your average triathlete? It’s good to be like Lance, if you remember that force plays a big role in his success. Many triathletes already have the aerobic capacity and threshold necessary for a fast bike, but are held back by a lack the force. So, what can you do to increase your power?
Find a slight uphill grade and ride at 55 to 60 R.P.M. for 3-5 minutes, spin easy for 3 minutes and repeat this cycle 4 to 6 times. During this workout your heart rate should stay low, if it rises than you need to shift into a bigger gear. This workout will help you generate more force while pedaling. This can be done during the latter part of the base phase and early in the build phase. After this point you want to incorporate a simple extended force workout like pushing a bigger gear at 60 RPM’s for an extended period of time. I have heard that some professional triathletes will do this for an hour, spin for 10 minutes and do another hour of big gear. This type of workout will give you the ability to put that force to the pedals for a longer period. Both workouts are necessary for transferring gains made in the weight room to the road and faster bike times.
Remember that balance is the key here. I feel that triathletes have been focusing too much on spinning and aerobic capacity. The idea of increasing power is not to make you a masher, but to allow you to spin a bigger gear at the same cadence, thus increasing your speed and lowering your bike time. Balancing the ability to spin with more power is going to help you reach new levels next race season.

Skills for Efficient Cycling Performance
by USA Cycling Coach Gary Gomulinski
The temperature is dropping and its time to change our cycling focus to building a more efficiency. The off season is our best chance to make a change in our pedal cadence and improve our overall performance. Every time we hop on the bike we enter into battle between aerodynamics and power delivery to the pedals. The more aerodynamic we are, the less power we can apply to the pedals, while a bike position which allows for greater power ultimately reduces our aerodynamics. Finding the right balance between aerodynamics and power is a tricky task, since that balance can vary widely between athletes. A bike set-up that works great for one rider might be detrimental to another. I want to take the bike set-up out of the equation for this article and focus on pedal efficiency or maximizing our power out put through more efficient pedaling.
Efficiency drives cycling. Cycling is endurance sport and the more efficient an athlete we become, the better our overall performance will be. The more efficient we become the less energy is needed to produce the same results. The less energy we use to cover the same distance translates into extra energy for those hard efforts or higher average speed over the same distance.
So where can we gain efficiency on the bike? Pedaling technique! Pedaling technique allows us to accelerate the pedals quickly with the minimal effort. To develop an efficient pedal... More...

CQT - Coach's Quick Tip - 2005 Off-Season

Coach Mike: Enjoy your time off and start training when your mind and body tells you it wants to train again.
Coach Erik: Don’t be afraid to let your fitness regress, nobody can maintain a constant trajectory of improvement. Think of it like a long jump: you jump a lot farther by stopping, backing up and taking a running start than by constantly moving forward at a walking pace and trying to jump. Sometimes, you HAVE to take two steps back to eventually move three steps ahead.
Coach Kevin: During the winter months, gain fitness through frequency of workouts, rather than long fewer workouts. Save the longer, fewer workouts for the better weather (spring) when you have less chance of injury, sickness and boredom during cold, darker days of winter.
Coach Mark: Just say NO to anaerobic threshold training in the off-season. The off-season is the perfect opportunity to work on form in the activity that requires improvement. Let your body recover from the hard season, and prepare next year’s journey with a good dose of low heart rate training. Train slow to get fast!
Coach AJ: Ditch your watch and don’t put any set time for any workout. Let your body tell you how long you should go. Don’t be afraid to run for just 15 minutes, or ride for 30 minutes, now is the time for maintenance, not fitness gains.

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