Strength on the bike

Sid Wavrin

I would like to get some input on how/if you all are using over gear or high torque workouts as a way to build strength on the bike. Maybe FTP power at 50 or 60 RPM for 20 minute intervals or something similar. Have you done it ? Have you found it effective? Once a week during a bike focus or out season? How could I incorporate it in the plans? 

Peter Greagg

Not sure why you would want to do that?
why not work on FTP, and stamina?

Edwin Croucher

@Sid Wavrin, I have read a bunch on varying cadence and I have tried the drills. I believe the single leg drills are valuable for improving you pedal stroke. I find that the high intensity of the OS workouts usually push me to a specific cadence. When I perform the FTP intervals, especially those long duration intervals (15-20 min) it is difficult to hold consistent watts for each interval if I am outside of my natural cadence. My goal for the FTP intervals is the move that bar up. If I were going to perform the overpower drills, they would be for shorter intervals of 1 to 2 minutes and target high power numbers.

Dave Campbell

I have had a lot of success this summer using the Optimized Intervals in WKO4 to build bike performance.  I'm not sure what bike strength means in your original question.  The intervals are designed to improve performance along specific time zones on their Power Duration Curve.  As a long course Triathlete, seems like you would want to improve the performance regarding FTP, Stamina, Time to Exhaustion.  None of their guidance on improving these has anything to do with cadence specifically.  I do believe in training in the mountains at sub-FTP levels for long climbs, like 13 mile climbs lasting 1.5-more hours long.  These usually happen at around 60rpm due to gearing.  But, I'm not looking to do a cadence specific workout.  Big gear workouts can be tough on your knees, so beware.

Shaughn Simmons

Strength on the bike for me comes from time in the saddle at or above my threshold watts, followed by proper recovery. Put simply.

That gets refined within ~8 weeks of an IM race as I focus on applying/improving my 5.5 hour w/kg in a race aero position.

Cadence as @Edwin Croucher notes is a very individual thing with IM pros ranging anywhere from 80 - 90+ for their endurance rides.

Dave Campbell's point is to be careful and limit your time below 65 cadence given the amount of pressure and torque you place on the knees and risk to injury.  Put the time in on the saddle and the cadence will figure itself out over time as you place your primary focus on raising your w/kg ratio and holding steady power over long rides.

SS

tim cronk

@Sid Wavrin  The question of wether you should concentrate on low cadence/strength can probably be answered if you think that is your limiter?  While I do not focus on any specific cadence during racing I think low cadence torque/strength type cycling is a good addition to any and all programs , just like high cadence ...Variety is good and works different systems and strengths, but think in terms of least specific type training being the furthest from your races..  I think the proper place to focus on this would be more than 12 weeks out from any IM or during the OS...  20 minutes of 50-60 cadence at FTP sounds like way too much, that type of work can be very stressful on the knees etc and possibly cause injury... I would do something like a 5 week progressive block , starting with something like 3 x 5' and add  1' per interval per week ending with 3 x 10' , done around 50-60 cadence , 80-85%... I once heard Andrew Starkowicz (not a fan actually but cant argue with his biking ability) telling somebody that you must be able to hold power at all cadences, if he is correct, that type of training would help with this and it certainly cant hurt if done correctly to avoid injury.

Scott Alexander

I'm a "masher". I generally have much lower cadences, at all speeds and power levels, than most would. Thankfully, I've had good knees to hold up this habit.

Being a big dood (6'1" and 210+lbs), there are times I cannot even get up a hill without a combination of high FTP and low cadence, even with a compact 50/34 chainring and an 11-28 cassette. So I train those muscles to push my fatass up against gravity!

I've got big quads (my VM/vastus medialis stick out and stretch my spandex) and a decently-sized booty because of it too.

I believe that we need to hone all our skills, the #1 being the ability to turn on/off certain behaviors, etc. With that said, I think you should train both high cadence and low cadence. You need to practice what you could come across in the real world, and sometimes you want/need to push low cadence at above FTP, and sometimes you want/need to spin out while pedaling.