Spinning The Wheels
When I was exercising daily on the elliptical I noticed that if I turned the resistance up as high as it would go and set the incline to its highest setting I could burn more calories in a given amount of time than with a lower setting. Setting the resistance meant that I did not have to go as fast to get the same workout. When my bicycle commute to work started to replace my elliptical time I took the same approach initially and would pedal using the highest gears. While I didn't have to pedal as fast, I did have to push harder to keep going. As I experimented with different pedaling speeds while remaining in the same high gears I noticed that by the time I got to work (or back) I always burned about the same amount of calories. I also noticed that my knees have started hurting some.
While on a popular bike forum yesterday I came across a discussion about the most efficient cadence. For those that don't know, cadence is the rate at which you pedal or the rpm of the crankshaft. I was surprised to learn that the most efficient cadence (being described as the most power per stroke) is between 80 and 100 rpms. Wow! A rough count of my normal cadence is definitely below 60 and probably more like 50. Another thing I read is that due to the position of a recumbent riders legs, "spinning" is an important technique to learn and is essential for climbing hills. This was especially interesting to me since I should be getting my new recumbent trike on Friday.
So I decided that today I would start to train my legs to spin the pedals a lot faster than I had been. I realized quickly that the only way to spin faster was to start in a lower gear. I found my middle front sprocket and 6th rear sprocket to be a very good starting place. In this gear I can easily start from a standstill and climb small grades without any difficulty. I was able to get up to about 18mph before I would start to "spin out", or reach the point when it was just too easy to pedal and felt like I was just pedaling air. I decided at this point to shift to the 7th rear sprocket, which at that speed felt fairly easy. I found that the faster I pedaled the easier it became and I could sustain about 22mph pretty good. On both my to-work and from-work trip I averaged almost 4mph faster than my normal speed and it felt easier than pounding on the high gears the whole time.
While on a popular bike forum yesterday I came across a discussion about the most efficient cadence. For those that don't know, cadence is the rate at which you pedal or the rpm of the crankshaft. I was surprised to learn that the most efficient cadence (being described as the most power per stroke) is between 80 and 100 rpms. Wow! A rough count of my normal cadence is definitely below 60 and probably more like 50. Another thing I read is that due to the position of a recumbent riders legs, "spinning" is an important technique to learn and is essential for climbing hills. This was especially interesting to me since I should be getting my new recumbent trike on Friday.
So I decided that today I would start to train my legs to spin the pedals a lot faster than I had been. I realized quickly that the only way to spin faster was to start in a lower gear. I found my middle front sprocket and 6th rear sprocket to be a very good starting place. In this gear I can easily start from a standstill and climb small grades without any difficulty. I was able to get up to about 18mph before I would start to "spin out", or reach the point when it was just too easy to pedal and felt like I was just pedaling air. I decided at this point to shift to the 7th rear sprocket, which at that speed felt fairly easy. I found that the faster I pedaled the easier it became and I could sustain about 22mph pretty good. On both my to-work and from-work trip I averaged almost 4mph faster than my normal speed and it felt easier than pounding on the high gears the whole time.
posted by Ashley Guy at 8:27 PM
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