Tag Archive for: technique

This bike-skills focused coaching minute discusses taking a relatively common drill – one leg pedaling – and adds some functional challenges to it. When you ride the trainer and pedal with one leg, your bike is stable. This means the stabilizing muscles of the opposite (not pedaling) leg do not have to fire to keep your bike upright and heading forward. Similarly, a lot of upper body twisting and pulling is masked when the bike is bolted into a trainer.

In the winter, you can make this drill more effective by switching to rollers. If you can ride outside, choose a hill of 5-8% or a big gear, and test your stability while pedaling one-legged.  Both of these options create a more realistic instability on the bike to challenge your pedaling mechanics.  You want to be able to one leg pedal as efficiently as you can with both.  Using this drill, you will become much more aware of where you are inefficient in the pedalstroke.

Cues to think about when you do this drill:

1. Watch your upper body for signs of rocking side to side or pulling on the bars so your front wheel is not rolling straight.
2. Do you have inconsistent speed? If you aren’t pushing and pulling on the pedal with your leg you will lose momentum. Try to keep a very smooth and even production of force.
3. To make #2 easier, focus the force on the pedal. Don’t collapse through the heel thinking that force is going into the pedal.

Incorporating one leg pedaling into your base season training, and combining with one leg OVERGEAR pedaling, will help improve your pedaling mechanics.  The more efficient you are pedaling, the more comfortable and powerful you feel on your bike.

Let me know how this drill works out for you!

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