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Old 05-13-22, 07:40 PM
  #116  
couldwheels
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
Most of that is just training effect. You get better at what you do. It's hard to tell what's going on when one switches back and forth. The best is simply to get one's numbers, i.e. crank/leg proportions, knee angle at top and bottom, and hip angle at the top, hands on hoods. Any bike fitter can help you get those angles in line with what works best. Then you train using that fit. There are bike fit contraptions used by a few fitters where the fitter can change all the elements of a fit and see with which fit a rider can produce the most power at some single heart rate. However that doesn't really work because it doesn't take efficiency into account, i.e. will that fit still be faster after 3 hours of steady hard riding? It's complicated.

I took a look at ebay and see that one can buy a Garmin 800 for about $50. I'm still using one I bought in '12. You'd also need the companion speed and cadence sensor and a Garmin heart rate strap and transmitter. It's way, way worth the money to have real time numbers in front of you which tell you what you're doing. When I ride by heart rate, I watch my heart rate and cadence, nothing else really. I might glance at time, distance, speed, or gradient, but just a glance. I ride by HR and cadence and try not to notice speed, because it's irrelevant. It doesn't matter how fast you are, it only matters if you're working at the effort you want to be at for best results.

But moving on to your concerns. Yes, "the burn" is commonly said to be due to lactate build-up in the muscles, though lactate has actually nothing to do with it. It's a limiter for effort, whatever it is (it's actually hydrogen ions), because your muscles eventually choke on the lowered pH: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30382520/

To address this issue, the most favored method is to do over-under intervals. You make them burn, then back off until they don't, bring the effort back up again, etc.
https://www.trainerroad.com/blog/ove...s-for-success/
https://www.strava.com/training-plan...ining-glossary

Leg hurt more with 170mm? Probably an issue with stretching and being undertrained. Stretch every morning, these stretches:
IT Band pain (during ride)
To train the legs up a bit, the best thing I've found is full depth (ass to grass) barbell squats, 3 sets of 12, enough weight on the last set that you can't do 12. Fix you right up - well, make you really sore until you get used to it. Twice a week. Start off with no weight at all. See youtube. I did my sets yesterday.

In any case, accurate instruments will have you sorting it all out in no time. For cadence, get used to doing 90 on the flat and 80 climbing.
I have actually become a lot better indoor training with too low saddle. You're right about the "training effect". I won't recommend this training style ofc. I only did it because the crank on the trainer is quite short compared to my outdoor bike - have to make the top pedal position the same between the short crank trainer and my outdoor bike by lowering the saddle on the short crank trainer.

It did result to big improvement on the outdoor bike. I went faster by more than 10% on climbs without burning my legs.

I'll keep a lookout for the Garmin 800, sounds cheap enough thanks! Won't be soon as big maintenance spending is coming up on tires, brake pads, chain, disc rotors, etc.

I spend 5 minutes on stretching, 10 minutes warmup. No more weighed strength training for me at least for this year. I have hurt my core muscles a few times and set me back a week each time! Weighed training was terrific if I didn't hurt my back! I think my back muscles have atrophied a bit for being a couch potato most of my life before I took cycling. I'm trying to build core muscle strength slowly with body-weight core exercises and ofc, low cadence, high resistance drills on the trainer.
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