Originally Posted by
carleton
I notice that early in the training season when doing road efforts (using a HR monitor), for a given effort, my HR will climb 10-20 extra beats per minute when I'm in the drops, meaning that I'm working harder to be there. The reason being is that my muscles never got to relax and get those micro-rests that occur within the pedal stroke. If the muscle is under tension, it cannot relax and rejuvenate for the next stroke. When I incorporate stretching into my regimen, my HR is the same whether I'm in the drops or hoods.
You're well in the ballpark. It's the muscles that are in extension that are "pulling" on your power producing muscles. If you stretch the mirror image muscles you reduce or eliminate this pull. Otherwise you have that constant tension.
You're also using the muscle in a different extension when in the drops. This creates additional oxygen demand because you're making "untrained" fibers work.
And depending on your position, you could also be impacting the diaphragm muscles which means your breathing capacity is impacted as well because shallower breath expose less lung surface for transfer.
Train like you race.
FWIW, I use the IAB a lot. It's a good position to leverage off of and I can get pretty efficient. Never use it on the track though, and in crits only when I'm at the front of the line. It's a nice way to make those folks behind you work a bit harder; if I'm leading a teammate, or someone I want to keep in a break I'll ride in the drops or even on the hoods.
Bucket load of my IAB in here:
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I was flatting out leading out with two to go. Came through the corner and realized I was pretty much on the rim.