Originally Posted by
Lamplight
I try to concentrate on my pedal stroke and I even do fairly well...until I hit a bad hill. When I have to put forth more effort, I forget to concentrate on my pedal stroke and automatically start ankling. I know I need to concentrate on my pedal stroke all the time, but I don't know how to actually do that. And I can pedal using other parts of my feet, but that gets old pretty quickly and when I have to really pedal hard, it seems I don't have as much strength unless I'm pedaling closer to the ball of my foot. Well, I plan to do a long-ish ride later this week; I'll just try to concentrate harder.
Ah, that's right - I was forgetting that you are having an aversion to clipless. What I suggested only works with clipless. One needs to be able to disregard the fact of shoe/pedal attachment and ride as though the bike were a simple extension of your skeleton. Hadn't really thought about it, but am very thankful that so far my body parts have been permanently attached to one another. How awkward if that were not the case. Hoping I don't sound rude or at least not too rude - but that's how it works. The footbone's connected to the pedalbone, the pedalbone's connected to the crankbone . . .praised be Shimano.