Road Cycling - i give my pedal stroke a C+

need a little help with my pedal stroke. i'm getting much better at pedaling in a circle (i.e. applying power evenly). however, i can't generate much power pedaling like this, and i can only do it on a flat road. when i need more power, for climbing or a headwind, i always revert back to the "gear mashing" technique where most of the power is in the downstroke. increasing my cadence help a tiny bit, but not too much. is this okay? how do you pedal when climbing vs. flats?




[edit] mods - i meant to put this is road cycling area, so feel free to move it or leave it here (in a way it's related to me training for races).

You may want to get back on the trainer. If you can find a box and place it next to your trainer, then place one foot on the box while you pedal with the other foot, that will help emphasize upstroke. Then the other foot that's still on the pedal will be the one you pedal with. When you pedal, concentrate on your upstroke only. Alternate legs, and start with 5 minute intervals of each leg (for about an hour). It will be fatiguing, but the more you do it, the more you'll find that your pedal stroke is improving.

Koffee

one thing i've found quite helpful in achieving a round pedal stroke is building your "pulling" muscles, as opposed to just your mashing muscles. it seems that if those muscles are there and strong, pedaling through the rotation becomes easier.

a good exercise for doing this is to ride on on a flat stretch of road and shift to your highest chainring and smallest cog and ride using your legs only to pull the pedals up through the back part of the rotation, as opposed to pushing.

you'll ride slowly and it'll hurt like hell after a few minutes (but that means it's working, right?!).

If you need a lot of power, stand, but then your heart rate shoots through the roof.

need a little help with my pedal stroke. i'm getting much better at pedaling in a circle (i.e. applying power evenly). however, i can't generate much power pedaling like this, and i can only do it on a flat road. when i need more power, for climbing or a headwind, i always revert back to the "gear mashing" technique where most of the power is in the downstroke. increasing my cadence help a tiny bit, but not too much. is this okay? how do you pedal when climbing vs. flats?


hm, just caught your last line about training for races. otherwise i was gonna say it's fine to mash. track sprinters have huge quads for a reason... it's a myth that they have the smoothest pedaling stroke (mountain bikers, actually, have hte smoothest, since they _need_ to maintain the same power on wobbly dirt). so getting big quads is absolutely fine.

sd

on hills i spin... on flats i spin like beeyatch. im not much of a power guy and climb much better spinning in my seat (especially good for long hills)... on the flats im a lot more comfortable spinning at 105 than i am at 85rpm

Big quads isn't the big deal about mashing gears, it's injuring your knees. You are more prone to blowing out a knee by having a low cadence/hard gear.
To each his own, if you compare Lance and Jan they are exact opposites for pedaling. Both do well in different areas. Just don't kill your knees!