I have had PCs for about 4 months now and have used them on and off. I was seeing some results, then I had to travel for a few weeks and my use of them got screwed up. Anyway, I am planning on using them much more now (prob 4 times per week). Today I did 30 mins on trainer with PCs, 30 min run, 30 min on trainer with PCs. My sole focus on the trainer was to keep my cadence between 90-100 the whole time, since the ideal running cadence is supposed to be low 90s. For those who have used them and seen good benefits, would you suggest using cadence as the biggest thing to be looking at when using PCs? Does some of the PC work need to be muscular endurance at a lower cadence? BTW, I am not entirely scrapping the bike. I still have hard stuff with the real cranks 2-3 times per week. Also, I found this cadence work right before my run to be beneficial.
I have found that gradually building up to 30-60 minutes on PowerCranks at very low wattages and very high cadence for several weekly workouts on recovery days produced the best results. I tested eight athletes, beginner through professional several years ago, and found that every one increased LT wattage after replacing a regular crank workout with PCs twice per week. These “recovery rides” were active recovery workouts for the glutes and quads, but muscular endurance and neuromuscular coordination workouts for the hip flexors.
Increasing load on the downstroke doesn’t increase intensity in the hip flexors, which are lifting the weight of the leg, not driving the chain (at steady state). Harder gears don’t make the legs heavier. Increasing cadence, even using very easy gears, foces the hip flexors to lift the weight of the legs more frequently.
Ken
This matches up with my sample size of one.
Just ride them. Every day, day after day, week after week, month after month. My experience with trying to force a high rpm was always negative to the point where I was borderline injured and that hurt my run training. My PC rpm came up on its own over time without any conscious choice. My up-pulling muscles eventually became capable of handling the load.
So far I have seen two methods of applying the benefits of PowerCranks:
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The drill method, meaning I am going to use them like a drill and improve my pedal stroke. This is useful and will help to the amount of degree that you do the work. However, if you always go back to your old cranks then ultimately you are limited in your gains.
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The submersion method, meaning your ride PCs 100 percent of the time. This allows you develop extra muscle mass, make PC riding something you no longer think about and in my opionion brings the biggest gains. I now race on my 190mm PowerCranks and saw my best results ever in the spring. My power output was higher and my run splits following the ride were very quick.
This is pure supposition based off my racing experience, but I think I run well off the bike because PCs don’t overload the quads as much and thus when I jump off the bike I can really run because they are not as fatigued as they would be with regular cranks. And I never do brick workouts either.
Chad
I tested eight athletes, beginner through professional several years ago, and found that every one increased LT wattage after replacing a regular crank workout with PCs twice per week. These “recovery rides” were active recovery workouts for the glutes and quads, but muscular endurance and neuromuscular coordination workouts for the hip flexors.
How did these results compare to those in the control group?
I’m also interested in the gains of “part time” PC usage myself. I can’t ride them full time. Well I could, but then I’d have to skip out on group rides with coworkers since I cannot possibly keep up while riding PC’s. I believe there is benefit to using them and I’m OK with getting less than 100% of it. 
I am slowly integrating them in the midseason- right now 45mins outside 4 or 5 times a week and long rides on weekend on other bike. I am still running though, but easy runs to maintain quad strength.
Last year I had a very noticeable improvement in my running within 6 weeksof use… so hoping it happens again and with greater effect
Weeman
Are you interested from purely cycling perspective or triathlon? I always assume as this is a multi-sport website that people are looking for multi-sport feedback.
My above recommandations are purely a multi-sport view. I wish I had powercranks 12 years ago when I was strickly a bike racer; maybe I might have won a sprint or two.
Chad
I picked up cycling for triathlon, and I lean more towards triathlon. But I’ll take feedback from either; I’m interested in any information at all.
I first got my PC’s 2 years ago, and they just destroyed me - I had a tough time riding for small amounts of time on the trainer. I kept at it and saw some gains. But I was also a very weak cyclist back then - now I’m just weak. I didn’t ride them at all last season, because I got talked into training for an IM with a friend, and I couldn’t work up the ride volume I needed to on PC’s. Now my IM is done (this season) and I have a much better biking base. Last week I rode them for the first time in over a year, and it didn’t hurt as much as I remember. Perhaps earlier, I was too weak to make good use of PC’s, but now I am intent on making a real go at it. I plan to ride on them two or three times a week (not fulltime as I mentioned earlier) and basically start laying the foundation for next season.
Ken Lehner,
About my research: I had 8 athletes perform the same 4-week block 3 times during the off-season, changing on which workouts PowerCranks were used for. For the first 4-week block, Powercranks were not used by any of the riders. For the second 4-week block, half the riders used Powercranks instead of regular cranks twice per week for rides at 50 watts on Mondays and Fridays and half the group used Powercranks for all riding. For the third 4-week block, we reversed the Monday/Friday group and the Powercrank only group.
I found no significant change in wattage at LT during the first 4 weeks. Both groups showed small increases in both LT wattage and economy during the Powercrank-only block, but larger increases in both when using the Powercranks supplementally.
I don’t offer this up as “proof” that this is the best way to use this tool or even that they do work. Certainly, any scientific journal would laugh in my face if I proposed this for publishing, but the results were consistent through all 8 athletes and I have had much success using them as a supplemental tool. Frank disagrees with me on this, and I’m sure there is more than one way to use them, but this is what has worked best for me. Ken
My best results are this year. I do 2-3 regular crank rides (either long rides or hard rides), the other 4 rides per week are 30-40 min each way per day riding PC’s at 90-110 RPM. Total “drill work”. My running mileage has been low this year but biking has been high. My bike splits have been awesome (for me) and my run splits have been respectable, but not great. To me, there is no substitute for running. That being said, by reducing run volume and riding PC’s often, I have been able get away with less running, been much more fresh through the whole season, recovered quickly (due to less running) and overall, have had my best season since 1996.
Coincidence (perhaps). But I like this method of using PC’s. As a point of reference for all of 2003 and more than half of 2004 I used PC’s exclusively,doing big volumes and I never felt good late in the bike during races or on the run.
As I say, you have to train on what you will be racing with. As such, using regular cranks is indispensable.
Dev
flanagan i think you are on to a good plan for use of your PC’s. incidently, all the suggestions you have gotten thus far are also good, and to me highlight just how fun and versatile using PC’s can be.
after a period of exclusive use i targeted higher cadence PC-ing, also. i rode ( and still ride) them a lot on rollers in the winter with pretty high cadences. in the summer i use them on seated hill repeat climbing rides and sorta mashing along road rides, but do lots of other style rides on different type bikes and terrains ( normal cranks) primarily.
my results with this have been very good, ( for me). mind you, the only result i really care about is having a good time riding, and the PC’s do that for sure - but my racing has shown very nice gains with ( to me) easily identifiable PC-relatedness. mostly i spent the first half of the season whuppin up on guys who used to whup up on me. several actually commented on my pedalling style, calling it very very smooth and kick-ass, wondering what in the hell i had done to get it. from the saddle, it is simply using different types of PC developed skillz/coordination. it feels good, and i guess it looks good, it works and it is fun. not a bad deal.
“How did these results compare to those in the control group?”
90% of all statistics are made up on the spot…we don’t need no stinkin’ control group!
~Matt
I have had PCs for about 4 months now and have used them on and off. I was seeing some results, then I had to travel for a few weeks and my use of them got screwed up. Anyway, I am planning on using them much more now (prob 4 times per week). Today I did 30 mins on trainer with PCs, 30 min run, 30 min on trainer with PCs. My sole focus on the trainer was to keep my cadence between 90-100 the whole time, since the ideal running cadence is supposed to be low 90s. For those who have used them and seen good benefits, would you suggest using cadence as the biggest thing to be looking at when using PCs? Does some of the PC work need to be muscular endurance at a lower cadence? BTW, I am not entirely scrapping the bike. I still have hard stuff with the real cranks 2-3 times per week. Also, I found this cadence work right before my run to be beneficial.
I think they way you use them should be based upon your goals. Runners should probably concentrate of higher rpm low resitance work, although they mey need to do the low RPM stuff to develop basic endurance in the beginning, if they are an endurance runner.
Cyclists need to be proficient at both high power and high cadence work. Chose your poison and work on it. The other will follow. Most choose workiing on endurance first, power follows then caadence follows naturally with time.
Ken Mierke and I have had a running debate on what is the best use of the PC’s, exclusive use or supplementation. This is the first data that suggests supplementation may be superior but I am still not convinced. 4 weeks in one thing, 4 months is another, and 4 years is another still. In the short term, someone looking for benefit 6 weeks from now, supplementation may be the best approach. For those looking for the best long-term benefit I am not convinced and his little study doesn’t look at the issue. Those who have taken the exclusive approach (CDW) and have been on them for several years I am sure are convinced that exclusive use is superior.
One thing to be said for the high cadence approach, I think you get a better workout in the same amount of time. 90 rpm is 5400 reps per hour whereas 70 rpm is “only” 4200. If you are time constrained higher cadence work may be superior.
Whatever approach you take you should probably use them to work most on your weaknesses, not your strengths.
I am nowhere near most slowtwitchers in bike or run ability but I’ll throw in my thoughts. I’ve had PC’s since 2/04 and initially used them exclusively. To do that I found that my cadence dropped. I started to really focus on increasing the cadence when using PC’s and riding regular cranks for non technique or power work. I have to say that my experience mirrors Ken’s. I saw no run gains until I rode PC’s @ hi cadence. My biking improvements have been slow and steady so I can’t really say how much PC’s have affected my biking.
FWIW.
Pat