Advice on improving my "cruise" gear?
N0bodyOfTheGoat
Posts: 6,057
Since getting my Felt last Easter, my typical high gear for my six mile shallow valley commute is 36t-16t. It is extremely rare for me to get any use out of my 50t chainring, although I surprisingly used upto and including my 50t-17t on the one day I managed to cycle rather than drive to work last week!
Admitedly, I am a spinner rather than a power cyclist and I did very little aerobic fitness between 2000 and 2004, but I would like to make more use of the gear range on my Felt (50-36t chainring; 11-23 cassette). Cadence-wise, my legs feel much happier around 100rpm than 60-70rpm, as the latter will often make my knees and quads feel achey after the ride.
Back in the 90s (my 20-somethings), I was a moderately trained athlete, due to my dedication to sport in general but especially Taekwondo. When I bought my Principia RSL in '97, my "cruise" gear was something around 52t-16t.
My Felt is due for its one year service soon, where if I'm told I need a new cassette, I'm tempted to go for a 15-25 or even a 16-27 replacement (due to my lack of power)!
What sort of training routine could I employ on my turbo, to start training my legs to cope with the 'strain' of using my 50t chainring and my 11-15 cassette range?
Admitedly, I am a spinner rather than a power cyclist and I did very little aerobic fitness between 2000 and 2004, but I would like to make more use of the gear range on my Felt (50-36t chainring; 11-23 cassette). Cadence-wise, my legs feel much happier around 100rpm than 60-70rpm, as the latter will often make my knees and quads feel achey after the ride.
Back in the 90s (my 20-somethings), I was a moderately trained athlete, due to my dedication to sport in general but especially Taekwondo. When I bought my Principia RSL in '97, my "cruise" gear was something around 52t-16t.
My Felt is due for its one year service soon, where if I'm told I need a new cassette, I'm tempted to go for a 15-25 or even a 16-27 replacement (due to my lack of power)!
What sort of training routine could I employ on my turbo, to start training my legs to cope with the 'strain' of using my 50t chainring and my 11-15 cassette range?
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2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo
2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo
0
Comments
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I cycle exactly like you, though to solve this last year I did a lot of 2x20's and 5-6x5's. (Just picked the 2/3x20's up again and will start the 5minutes soon.)
Make sure that at the end of each interval you're feeling like you need a rest, but will be ready to keep the same load for the whole of the next interval.
What turbo trainer have you got? I actually use one specefic bike in the gym ( :oops: ) which has a power reading and i just set it to a specefic power level and it cannot drop below that level (slow i turn the harder it is to push). Eventually spinning in the higher gear will be easier like you say.
But if you were doing 100rpm with a 50-17 you'd be doing 23mph. 50-19 is 21 mph.0 -
The turbo is only a basic Elite Mag Lite, bought it last summer, in fact I have not used it for ages! I might regret this, considering I think I have a cold/flu thing coming on (thanks to sister-in-law), but I'm going to hook up the old Peugeot to the trainer for a short session...================
2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo0 -
Firstly - leave your sister-in-law alone! You'll get into serious trouble.
Second - why worry about which gear you are in - just ride in whatever makes you feel happiest - bike gears are not like car gears so you shouldn't feel it necessary to ride in any particular gear.0 -
Good point ^^ I wanted to get onto my big ring for two reasons:
a) psychological - it felt good to think i could at the time ( :roll: )
b) spread the ware on the chain rings more.
Now i just know to cycle how i want, and if i have to use the big ring then so be it.0
