Originally Posted by
Hermes
I am done being a lab rat for OP's crowd sourcing.
But one last post here.
With respect to economy. In the lactate article, they discuss all aerobic sports including cycling. Swimming and running require more focus on economy than cycling per se. Swimming technique is very important and since water creates a lot of drag, body position in the water is crucial to generate more speed.
Cycling, we are locked into the pedals and posture is fixed. Having said that, poor cycling economy zap speed. I train my hardest efforts in the most efficient position to generate the most speed and I work on position and posture on the bike along with strength and adaptation on the bike.
The track is a proving ground for cycling economy. Speeds are higher and poor economy shows up immediately predominantly because we cannot change gears to offset leg speed issues. If a slight gap opens, I need max force instantly to close it especially if I am in a big gear. All we do at the track is pace line work. So we get really good at riding in a pace line at high speed and optimize our position, cadence and equipment. Otherwise, we quickly run out of aerobic capacity and strength to generate the speed to be competitive.
Sounds like plenty of economy work, perfect. I think that's what the fixed training advocates are getting at - doing just what you do, very high cadence for long periods, hard accelerations at high cadence, etc. Don't need to be fixed to do that, though. I think economy is important for cyclists and train it throughout the season. Thanks for the post.
We are all crowd sourcing here, trying to learn from others. That's the whole point.