Originally Posted by
Allegheny Jet
Tell the researcher to ride with a Power Tap or other type of watt meter. Ride for 10 minutes at your regular cadence at your mid Z3 pace and record your average watts. Take a 10 minute break then ride another 10 minutes at Z3 at your regular cadence but this time concentrate on putting power into every part of your pedal stroke. Compare the average watts from the two efforts. I'll bet they will say there is a difference in average watts for the same effort and that we should pedal in circles if we want more speed at the same effort. I'm not a scientist or researcher but I have done the experiment and I concentrate on putting power into the entire pedal stroke.
My experience too however.... Power produced is directly proportional to our ability to get oxygen to the muscles and use it. So once our power exceeds our available oxygen, it is checkmate. IMO, having a great pedal stroke is about de-emphasizing the use of the quads and emphasizing the use of the glutes (which get great blood flow) and contribution from the hams and hip flexors. Hypo...two riders in the peloton and one is pedaling smoothly and keeping his feet in the top of his shoes. He is optimizing his hams, hip flexors and glutes with minimal use of the quads. The other is spinning slower and mashing away using his quads and glutes. The peloton comes to a bump in the road and the power for both riders goes to 400 watts. The first rider now engages his fresher quads more while the other rider has to continue mashing putting even more work into his quads. As the miles go on, the rider who has a better pedals stroke has less fatigue at the end than the masher.
The key point is the more you can use your glutes (ass) and the quads less, for the same power there is less fatigue because the glutes get better blood flow. Does your ass ever get tired? My ass does not but my quads die like dogs.
