Question for the Coaches: Power meter use and pedal technique, what say you? (Page 3)

So let me see if I'm understanding what you're saying... If one were to have a powermeter and tested it against another factor, say, stress on the body or heart rate, then one just might be able to determine the optimal pedal technique for a given athlete, whether it be high cadence, low cadence, toe up or down, pressure application, etc?

Man o man, where the heck have I heard that before? hahahaha. Maybe doing this stuff for 26 years teaches you a thing or two. Maybe not though. I'm sure I'll be shot down in approximately 1 nanosecond.

Off for a night mountain bike ride. You guys enjoy your evening!

The injury question is very interesting. I wonder if it could be used in a way to help redevelop more quickly. Up until they are reasonable close.  Otherwise, once able to ride, it's just ride within yourself and the weaker leg will come back reasonably close over time. The strong leg will likely be limited for awhile. But when looking at running, we don't take a massive bound with the strong leg just because we can, we limit it so both are operating similar to each other.

That was with a person who should be able to make a full recovery. Something like an amputee (for example) could be different. They won't make a full recovery and could be significantly unbalanced.

I guess I'm not following something here.  I'm not really concerned with my pedaling technique, but I do think it's interesting to know if one leg is more dominant than the other.  i.e. if I do a 3 hour ride, and can see that I've developed 60% of my power with my right leg vs 40% with my left leg (very likely a big exaggeration)- would that not be important?  If I feel some odd twinges or seem to get more fatigued on one leg rather than the other, and can take a look at individual data for each leg during a ride, does that not maybe provide some information (note - I said maybe).

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to know this data - perhaps it's not worth $1500 - but also think there could be useful information from the L/R data.

My bad Fred, I think I did a rotten job of explaining.

In essence:

A. With pedal stroke form, you got what you got. You probably can't, and likely shouldn't, try the change to appearance of your pedal stroke.

B. With pedal stroke application of force, your "Spin Scan" or the vectors you apply force to the pedal- you can change that and may do well to in the interest of efficiency. It takes time, drills, riding a fixed gear- all that "old school" stuff no one has heard of.

Now, doing "B" may influence "A", a bit of a contradiction, but I'll suggest "B" is an approach that has been employed with success by competitive cyclists since the 1920's and six-day racing. "A", in and of itself, is a tough call without much argument to support it.

Hmmm.. I don't think that explaination is any clearer...

Fred,

Just curious; did your spin scan stay at 80 or drop back down to 60.  My spin scan drop back down to 60 and is currently avg 60 R/L. 

Ok so I just got a powermeter on Thursday and as such, the first thing I did was read "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" by Allen and Coggan from cover to cover. I do recall reading about quadrant analysis and training specificity. I would say that using the data from a power meter to identify cadences selected during different scenarios can be pretty insightful. For instance, if you are mashing up hills at a low cadence, you may be depleting muscle glycogen faster than if you were to spin up at a more optimal cadence due to increased type II recruitment (although I'm still a little unclear about this as are the authors). Also, plotting power vs cadence can help you identify the point at which power drops. To quote the book:

"In cycling, besides making yourself more aerodynamic, there are only two variables involved in going faster: You can pedal harder and you can pedal faster. The scatterplot can help you to understand which one of these options (or combination of them) might be more beneficial for you to set goals in as you train."

So will I use my power-meter to integrate pedaling technique into my training or racing? If by pedaling technique you mean cadence, then yes. If not, then I'm really not sure what the question is about.

Maybe you could try different pedaling techniques to see which is best by trial and error, but that seems like a lot of research to do especially since any change in technique will likely require an adaption period of an unknown time frame. In reality though, how much can pedaling efficiency really be improved beyond a certain point? Unless you are somehow sabotaging your pedaling stroke by pushing both pedals down at the same time, I don't really imagine that much could be changed. It is hard enough for runners to effectively improve technique, just ask Jack Daniels about heel striking vs mid-foot striking.

Maybe with these new force meters coming out on the market (never have been force meters largely available until now), there will be some research done on pedaling stroke efficiency, but I'll leave that to the people with PhDs in exercise physiology performing large studies.

Ah, yes. Informational inertia.

Or your swim stroke....

I think you should re-read my reply because that is not what I was implying. Have you read that chapter?