I've been giving this thread a lot of thought and did some experiementation on my ride to work this morning...
Originally Posted by
ZXiMan
When I'm sprinting to close gaps or respond to accelerations in the peloton, I'm in the drops and standing, but I conserve energy (or btter yet my legs) by spinning an easier gear and NOT using my upper body.
I agree with this, but I would offer than for an
attack you want maximum power for at least a brief moment and would use the whole body to get a clean separation and then settle into a more sustainable rhythm still focusing on a higher power output at the expense of some efficiency for another short period of time (but longer than the initial acceleration) until a decent gap is established. After that point, efficiency becomes the most important thing because you have to basically outlast everyone and you cannot afford to waste any energy.
Originally Posted by
bent eagle
Thanks for the idea. The affore-mentioned coach tried that right away though, and the hip-tilting didn't go away. If I remember correctly, he said that tilting could be a sign that the seat is too high, but that wasn't it in my case.
Originally Posted by
Szczuldo
then it's your pedal stroke, your hips should not be rocking back and forth when you are on the saddle.
I used to rock my hips a lot and people much more experienced than myself would constantly tell me that I needed to lower my saddle. I tried lowering it but it was not comfortable and I still rocked, and they
still told me I needed to lower it. So I put it back up and instead worked on my pedal stroke. I now have a smooth(er) stroke and the same people have told me that it's good that I finally dropped my saddle, even though it is still at the same place as before
There are a few things that I did that really helped. First, is just to be aware of it. Second, I was stuck in my little ring for a while due to some FD issues (it worked but was unreliable, and would often not shift). That forced me to spin fast to keep up. 30mph+ in the little ring. You cannot rock your hips at that cadence, it just doesn't work. Finally, riding with no hands helps, because it makes you acutely aware of your pedal stroke and any bouncing caused by rocking your hips will make the bike swerve all over the road. Even more so, climbing with no hands really makes you focus on it because you have to put a lot of power through the pedals but you still have to be smooth.
Originally Posted by
Szczuldo
Wait...are you mashing? if so then your probably moving your entire body so you can put enough force on the pedals and in doing so you are making yourself less efficient. Maybe try spinning a larger gear and see what that does for you.
It's been a while since I'd been "cured" of that particular affliction, so this is where my experiments this morning came into play. I found that I could put out more power (i.e. speed)
at the same cadence by shifting to a higher gear and rocking my hips as the OP describes. In effect, mashing down the pedals, using my entire body through my hips to put my weight down on the pedal. However,
I could put out more power/speed at a lower HR by
increasing the cadence, and maintaining an even pedal stroke without rocking.
OP, you can chose to listen to everyone here and your coach, or you can believe that you are still correct. Your call
