Last night on my way home from a 87 mile ride I had had enough spinning. I dropped it into 53x12 for five miles of flat and actually enjoyed just powering the pedals, although I’m unsure how long my knees would last.
Anyone have a recommendation on how long and/or often drills like this should be done? At what cadence?
Usually people do these types of workouts in the offseason (it may be for you). I have seen many discussions about this on Gordo’s board.
I do them as per Marc Becker’s advice ( www.IronGuides.net). It has helped my cycling tremendously in the past 18 months and led me to a 2:13 1/2 IM bike split and a 54 min 40k bike split.
The cadence: between 40 and 50 rpm
The load: as heavy as the bike will go - in the downhills, hold on the brakes to keep the load high.
In my opinion, only way to go. I did these for both non draft olympic dist. training and IM training.
Let me know if you have any further q’s and enjoy the workouts!
“The cadence: between 40 and 50 rpm”
Wow. I was at 63-65rpms on the 53x12. I’ll have to either do them into the wind or get an 11 tooth cog.
Do you do them on your road or tri bike?
How far do you go for, and how often do you do it?
Frequency: once a week, in my case.
I have a 56/11 on the TT bike. I do it on the road bike in the off season, and have a 55/11 there.
I do 30 x 1 min on by 1 min off, very light. Sometimes I stretch the hard part and do 2 min on by 1 min off.
Gordo says: “2-8 intervals of 3-20 min duration.”
Sounds like they’re mainly doing it on the trainer in the winter.
Thanks.
These are best done on an incline say 3-4% and seated. Like Felipe I usually do them once per week (except for recovery week) and usually on Tues.