fixie/single speed for training?

twotyred

matudavey wrote:

The higher your peak torque the better, as for the same power you will be operating at a lower proportion of your maximum, which in turn reduces the onset of fatigue, and you can maintain that torque for longer.

If you can support your weight on one leg your peak torque or the maximum force one of your legs can exert is already way above what you need for endurance cycling and like Imposter says may only be a limiting factor in sprinting situations. There's a long thread on this. However that's only if we define strength as the maximum force your legs can exert such as the maximum weight you could squat or leg press in a gym which is apparently how strength is defined in the sports science/physiology world. So if you trained in the gym and increased the max weight you could leg press then you could be said to have increased your leg strength. If on the other hand you had managed to increase the number of reps you could lift a particular weight for then a lot of reasonable people would say you had become stronger even if by the strict definition of strength above you had not. A bit like if you were able to pedal up a particular hill at a lower cadence in a higher gear at the same power output than before. Again a lot of people might say you had become stronger but a sports scientist would probably say you had not (there will probably be one of these along shortly). I think this is where you're coming from. There may be a sports science definition of this ability to exert higher pedal force at lower cadence for longer and longer periods, I have no idea, but I don't think its called getting fitter either as in my example you have not increased your power.

For some reason Bradley Wiggins spent a lot of 2011/2012 improving his ability to pedal at a lower cadence with higher force but he didn't use a fixie he just slotted a normal road bike into a higher gear.

Bottom line is that if you want to go faster then working to improve your fitness at your optimum cadence using a geared bike with a well structured training programme is a more efficient means of doing this than flogging your self on a fixed gear.