Went out for a standard cycling workout today as my legs started to come back to life after two days of being stone cold dead after running that 30k. They still weren’t tops because I dragged myself home 12 minutes slower then the previous time at over 1hr 40mins. It really highlights how fatigue is the biggest factor in performance. You just can’t do anything about it if your body is tired and trying to recover.
One very useful thing came out of this workout. I made another connection in movement pattern that once again makes sense. I suddenly realised that the pull back of the hip with rotation of the spine is linked to the push forward of the pedal over the dead spot. The movements are both in the same plane – the foot pushing forwards (not down) and the hip moving backwards. I’ve never enjoyed pushing the pedal forwards through the 12 O’clock position because it never felt natural for me – and likewise the pulling back of the lower pedal though the 6 o’clock position – (scraping mud off your foot). Linking this to the rotation of the spine it feels very natural and lets the core muscles engage more effectively and earlier (and later for the pull back) – or through a greater range of stroke. I had been noticing a lack of early engagement of the core muscles and was wondering how to engage them more effectively when I spotted this.
I experimented with reversing the hip movement to drive forward with the hip when pushing the pedal forwards and it is more powerful – but I know that it would destroy the back and stop the core muscles being exploited properly.