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Old 08-21-19, 11:02 AM
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Carbonfiberboy 
just another gosling
 
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Everett, WA
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Bikes: CoMo Speedster 2003, Trek 5200, CAAD 9, Fred 2004

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I don't bike fit that matters much, other than saddle height. It's more about the pedaling motion, what you do where as your feet go around the circle. Try this: Put your bike in a very low gear and attempt to pedal at a very high cadence, say 115-120, for as long as possible, say 15' minimum to 45' max. Some coaches call this FastPedal. Don't do the more typical 1' fast cadence intervals. Long periods are necessary. No bouncing. I can pedal 150 w/o bouncing. If you bounce, pedal at the speed just below the bounce. The way to do this is to pedal with an air cushion between the soles of your feet and the insole of the shoe. Pedal with the uppers, including the heel cup. Wiggle your toes. So no down pressure at all. Yes, this is hard to do. That's the whole point. As it is said, if it were easy, everyone would do it.

You can play with your saddle height while doing the above, see where it feels best. Obviously, you won't be able to do this if your saddle is so high that you rock your hips while pedaling. No time for that.

Pedaling normally, you really shouldn't feel any down pressure unless you're pushing hard. The pedals should just go around with a more or less constant pedal force.This fixes the quad dominant thing, right there.

If you don't have a trainer or rollers on which to do the FastPedal exercise, you can do it on a flat road. That's maybe harder because of the bike's momentum. In either case, no chain slack anywhere. Steady tension on the chain is necessary.

Another good exercise is one-legged pedaling (OLP). Wedge the lazy foot in your empty bottle cages, pedal with the other one, 2' interval, switch feet, 2' other foot, 2' legs together, repeat until you start to get chain slack as your foot comes over the top hopefully increasing to 45' total over many weeks or months. If you can't do 2', start with 1'. Obviously this is easier on a trainer or rollers, but I've often done it on a long shallow hill. Too difficult to do on the flat, IME.

1 do one of the exercises once a week on my resistance rollers, year 'round, have done for a couple decades. I do the FastPedal until January or February, then switch to the OLP. Yes, they both hurt pretty good. Fix you right up though. Once you get proficient, either of these makes a good recovery exercise.
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