Focusing on cadence

When I started riding on my commuter bike, I left the shifting on the toughest gear combo possible with the thought that it would be most efficient for me and that I'd build better fitness (muscles!). When I bought the road bike, I thought I would be leaving the bike in a tough gearing most of the time as well, except when climbing of course.

Well, apparently tough gearing is not so smart and high cadence (pedal revolution rate) is a key for efficiency. This is not as easy as it sounds for me though since I'm used to feeling more resistance on the pedals. I figure since I'm practically learning to pedal all over again, I would be sure to take high cadence as a goal during my training rides.

I'm far from the expert, but my reading has suggested that somewhere between 85 and 105rpm is the sweet spot for efficient road riding, unlike our rider above. I think this varies from person to person, but the gist is that the low resistance will better tune your riding muscles during the initial periods as well as bring your body to a "peak" for riding.

Now, during my Monday and Wednesday training rides, I shift to my smaller chainring and push up the RPMs, focusing on pedaling technique. For a while, I started bouncing on the saddle, and I initially thought this was a question of saddle position. Instead, with a tip from another local rider, he suggested I focus on completely lifting my weight off of the pedal on the upstroke. What a difference! Instead of thinking about pulling up the pedal, simply focusing on removing the weight from the pedal makes for a big change.

I now have a cadence monitor, but I tried to count revolutions per second to give me an idea of RPM. 1 revolution per second, I was doing 60 RPM. 2 revolutions per second would be 120 RPM. So I would aim somewhere in between to reach that 85-105 RPM range, something like 3 revolutions per 2 seconds.

What do you think? How big of a role does cadence have in your training?

Learning to pedal

Among many roadies, you'll hear talk of power, bike stiffness, and efficiency. A lot of the different industries design their products and compete with efficiency as the main goal, comfort usually coming second. But beyond product, there is a lot of talk about the more efficient pedal stroke as a fundamental.

Personally, I had no idea there was so much that could be involved with what I perceived to be the simple act of pedaling my bicycle. I knew that one of the purposes and advantages of being clipped into your pedals was so that you could pull up on the pedals and maintain consistent contact. It barely starts there though... I'm just learning to pedal :)

There are two main points that feel strange to me that I'm currently practicing with my training rides. The first is the purposeful use of my ankle to appropriately angle my foot. I consciously think about how I point my toes to maximize the use of the force I'm putting on the crank arm. Going back to the days of high-school physics, the more perpendicular the pushing or pulling force is to the crank arm, the more efficient the pedaling. Any parallel force is wasted. Obviously, I can't always apply a 100% perpendicular force, but I try my best to think about the angle of my foot so that I can maximize my efficiency.

The second point is about more consciously using my hamstring, especially to pull the pedals. I don't remember exactly where I read or heard this, but it has been helpful for me: when you're at the bottom of the stroke, pull your leg and foot backward as if you were wiping dog-poo off your shoe on the grass. This made it very easy for me to translate the motion onto the bike, and this, in-turn, helps minimize that "dead spot" in the stroke where your downward push on the pedals would be 100% parallel to the cranks, and thus wasted.

In some of my morning training, I'm doing my best to ride with these two points in mind as I shape my pedaling technique and style, by it is far from second-nature. There are many different pedaling styles though that I am not even aware of though... to the readers, what are your pedaling-points?

Endless cleat positioning

Before I really knew the world I entered when I bought my road bike, I had simple mountain biking shoes with the tiny SPD cleat. These cleats actually went into a hybrid platform/MTB pedal and I never really thought anything else of it. My knees didn't hurt, the fit of the bike felt fine. There were a couple of limitations though. The shoe could become stuck or unclipped when applying a lot of power, such as in a sprint. Also, the pedal and cleat didn't cover much surface area, so I was subject to hot spots depending on the pressure to the pedal.

After some research, I decided that road pedals, with their wider platform, would be the way to go to maximize my efficiency. For Christmas, my wife gave me some Ultegra SPD-SL pedals, and I followed that up with the purchase of Specialized BG Comp Road shoes and attached the Shimano cleats.

Immediately, on my first ride, I felt a few things off. On both of my feet, I felt like I was pushing with my toes, and with my left foot, I had not compensated enough for how my feet point naturally inward, yup I'm pigeon toed. I made an quick adjustment to both cleats. My right cleat and foot felt perfect, but the left one continued to be a problem.

My left inner knee would feel a strain on pedaling, or I'd feel like I was pushing too much with my toes. With every adjustment I made, it was either one or the other, I can't get rid of both symptoms.

I ran across this great article that talks about knee pain. For my case, it suggested allowing my feet to point further inward and move the cleat outside so that my leg would be closer to the frame; both changes minimizing the stress on my medial collateral ligament. Check out this knee diagram to complement the previous link with tips to address knee pain.

I'm still not there though. On the radar are for me to investigate some of Specialized's "footbeds" and shims to help align my left leg and foot. I may need to make some saddle adjustments. My last resort, which actually would be great, would be to invest in a full bike fit to increase my comfort and performance. For now, it's a consistent game of little adjustments before, during, and after rides. I don't regret moving to the road-style pedal and cleats, but I do wish the fit were easier. How do you deal with fit problems when it comes to the cleat?