Okay, I have gotten my power cranks on Friday, and started using them yesterday. Man, I guess I am a klutz, but boy, these things are HARD!! I am trying to get my new Velotron understood at the same time so it is a little tough. So, how have folks first used them and progressed? After just a few minutes many times yesterday I had to stop. I could not believe how quickly my legs got tired!!! I really have to focus to keep the pedal stroke smooth. I am going to be happy when I can make my first 5 minutes without stopping. When I find is real hard is if I am riding a course, and it starts to go downhill. Will the Velotrons 55 lb flywheel, you have all that energy helping you move along just like on a real bike. And the CT, you have to keep pushing even on the downhill. On the Velotron, you do not. So, what do folks do when the load reduces? Stop pedaling? ?
So, right now I will admit I am a little bummed since I want to keep my bike riding going. I hope to have my locking hubs working soon which I assume will allow me to ride “normally”. I have left the cranks at 175 since thats what my race bike has on now, and I have one more race in a week. After that, I will try going to longer cranks and see what happens. I do not want to change too many things all at one time.
So, for folks who can remember how they started on PC’s, what advice can you give? My current thought is I just jump on the bike every hour for a few minutes. :o(
Your plan is good. Several times a day is best in the beginning if you are really “bad”. You will see improvement everyday and should be at the 5 minute mark this week. You will find the adaption coming a little faster if you shorten the cranks some. Lifting a few extra millimeters doesn’t seem like much until you are trying to do it 90 times a minute for an hour or so.
Frank thanks. Glad I was not totally out to left field how to start. I also agree on the crank lengths. I guess I will keep them at the 175 until I build up more strength and coordination. After that I will start making them longer. I had never done one legged drills before, and I can see they are not easy, but sure is nice doing them both at the same time while riding, if I can call it that yet. :o)
I endorse the “pedal as long as you can, rest as long as you need to” method. That’s how I started out, and two months later, that approach is still working for me–I did a 150K (93 mile) charity ride like that on PCs last weekend. What I notice is that I am pedaling longer and resting less without making any conscious effort in that direction.
Don’t force cadence unless you want to increase your suffering exponentially. About a month after I got my PCs, my coach wrote me a workout that included 15 minutes of cadence drills. cdw had already warned me not to push cadence, but because I physically could do the cadence drills, i.e., could make the pedals go 'round that fast, I thought I would be OK. Wrong, wrong, wrong!! I did that workout on a Thursday afternoon. By the time my alarm clock went off on Friday morning, I was already awake with DOMS that just got worse. I still rode 60 miles on my PCs that Saturday, but it was really, really hard.