Improving pedaling with a CompuTrainer
Our local Pearl Izumi store has made arrangements with a local cycling coach to set up four CompuTrainer slots in the store. The price for just riding is great, just $15/hour, optional coaching while riding is, of course, more. With the help of the coach, Jack Weiss, I did an anerobic threshold test on it by increasing the wattage by 10 every time my heart rate stabilized while maintaining a cadence of 90 and the same gear. Beginning at 120 watts and ending at 290 I discovered that my anerobic threshold was at a HR of 159 and 230 watts.
I went in the other day just to ride a series of hills and the coach displayed the CompuTrainer's analysis of my pedaling. Different color bars represent different parts of the pedal stroke, with blue being the downstroke and red being the upstroke. In between, there is a whole range of colors, each representing a different part of the stroke. My stroke was very uneven, i.e. very high blue and very low red. He said I was only pushing and not pulling and that I would benefit by doing more pulling. I tried my best but the display barely budged. Then, he showed me the same analysis of two women riding next to me--Their graphs were smooth sine waves--very even. Their downstrokes were more powerful but their upstrokes and all the other parts of the cycle showed significant force being applied. I was amazed. I kept trying to come even close but with little to no success. When I asked them how they said they had just thought about when riding, both on the road and on the CT. They gave the standard advice think about pedaling as if you were a bull pawing the ground or trying to wipe mud off the bottom of your shoe. But, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get my stroke anywhere near theirs in terms of smooth and steady power applied consistently througout the pedal stroke.
I know that one legged pedaling drills are one way to do this and I plan to start doing them regularly.
Anyone have experience with this and any other advice on how I might improve my pedaling or comments on the CT in general?