Road Cycling - Blim Lim Goggle Smuck

Sparked your curiosity have I? Read On.

Well, this is your lucky day, because I'm going to let you in on a secret to delaying the onset of fatigue while riding at high intensity that actually works. This is not for when you are riding easy, in fact DON'T do this when you're riding easy. It will just mess you up. DO do this when you are riding very hard like in a TT, a breakaway, or when the pack simply throws the gauntlet down. This is NOT a joke.

Here go's --- Push mainly with just one leg for four strokes (count "one" stroke as each time a leg reaches the bottom) while the other leg is taking a small break, and then switch to pushing mostly with the other leg. The leg that's working less should be "loose" and unweighted as it comes up the back of the stroke.

As you do this you will find that your cadence tends to rise up to a higher than normal rate. For me that means that I'll start spinning at aroung 95, which is fast for me. A faster than normal cadence is absolutely KEY for this to work out as a benefit. 3 strokes on one leg is too few to make a difference, 5 is too many and you're legs won't take it without the bike having slowed down, 4 is JUST RIGHT.

At a cadence of around 90, four strokes takes a bit less than 3 secconds. The time spent on each leg is short, but the rest that your "easy" leg gets helps a ton, and breaks up an otherwise constant hard effort from BOTH of your legs. A very fast cadence and quick + smooth turnover from one leg to the other will keep you from slowing down noticably with only one leg doing most of the work.

Count the strokes to yourself very very very softly, but indeed out loud -- your breathing will naturaly fall into a rhythm of deep and fast pace with the 1-2-3-4 counting, which will help you maintain speed and get into a groove.

This method of riding lets you rely on good muscular endurance (normally used for shorter periods) to accomplish a task (riding fast for EXTENDED periods) that normally requires good stamina. Muscular endurance is easily gained with high-rep work in the gym which a lot of you guys have probably been doing anyway.

This method of riding has allowed me a focus and rhythm in my breathing that has helped me tremendously. Also it is a means of translating a winter full of gym work to MAINTAINED HIGH SPEED while on the bike.

----- You may think that this is stupid, but try it - and try it again, and I think that you will find that this really can be a good technique for sustaining a high speed. -----

- Maurizio

I do this already and it works for me. I'm interested in hearing form others here.;)

I do this too. I count to eight though. I think it's the rythm more than the switching leg thing... at least for me. I'll also count each time a leg reaches the top of the stroke and go to one hundred then repeat, kinda like 99 bottles of beer on the wall. I've increased my base/nomal cadence from 60's to high 80's in 3 months doing this.
Doug

I'm not sure if the "resting" leg can really recover in 3 seconds, but if it seems to help then why not? Even if it didn't physically help, having something to focus on other than the pain will help. I'll give it a try next time I'm on the rollers!

I do this but find it hard to keep up for more than a couple of minutes at the time. By the point that I'm ready to try this, I'm usually too tired to concentrate for long.

I tried it yesterday. It seemed to work okay. For me, if I concentrate on each leg, on each stroke, I tire too quickly (probably pushing too hard), if I don't think about it, I wind up letting my right leg do most of the work. The hard part of Maurizios technique is the switchover... four counts, once per rev, then half a rev later, start again. The half rev thing throws me. I even tried using blim-lim-goggle-smuck instead of counting. That was worse than riding with the theme from Gilligans Island stuck in your head. It'll come with practice, I suppose (the technique, not blim lim, etc).

Thanks for bringing this up, Maurizio.
This technique did spark my interest, but it was dark and raining so I couldn’t try it on my bike.
So I tried the same approach on my Nordic Trak and banged out my usual 3km in 18 minutes instead of my usual 19 (I work out with the friction setting cranked up high). I was much more tired (and exhilarated!) after working out that much harder but the bottom line is that I probably could not have done it that fast, had I gone about it business as usual. And let’s face it, in endurance sports, interest level has a lot to do with energy level.
I’m also a tri-guy (no, that’s not a sexual identity) so I’m eager to see if this approach can be adapted to running and swimming.
Did somebody mention sexuality? I wonder if this approach can be used to < censored > ? ;)

I don't want Maurizio to ride down to Galveston counting to four on each leg to kick my ass for changing the method :D But try counting as each knee reaches the top. You essentially count "2" for each crank revolution. I like this method because each leg takes it's turn, rapidly, and you increase your cadence. Give it a try.
Doug.... 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.......98-99100!!!!