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By Grass Roots Racing

By Mike Shultz CSCS-Highland Training

Applying Force

An article by Mike Schultz CSCS of Highland Training

As you climb your next hill while cycling, think about the amount of force you are applying to the pedals compared to the speed of your cadence. Also think about the length of time you can work with great muscle force while climbing a hill. Working with good muscle force is an important factor within any cycling program. Increasing strength using good force work is important. It is also important to balance force work with endurance work. Building more endurance properties will help you increase your ability to handle a certain amount of force for a longer duration of time.

Working good force calls upon more anaerobic properties compared to aerobic properties. When working with good force and higher power outputs, you are calling upon more type II muscle fibers and more anaerobic enzyme activity. But to call upon these muscle fibers, to provide the appropriate stress, you must be able to work at a higher power output while working force efforts. Producing good force relates to higher power outputs, in watts. A power meter will give you this information while cycling. Working on a sustained climb, in a big gear, does not always relate to producing a higher power output. If you are fatigued from previous workouts or races, you will have less potential to produce higher power outputs. There will be times when feel like you are producing good force on the pedals, but you are not.

Force work should always be a part of the training program but the amount of force work will depend on the goals of the athlete and the time of year. Since it is your endurance properties that will allow you to produce good force for a longer period of time, building an endurance base is important. As you finish off season training, and start into a new cycling season, working on endurance is a great way to begin. Then working into periods of training, focused on producing good force, will allow you to recruit more overall muscle fibers, and give you gains in strength. In theory, the fibers you activate or create from working good force, can then be worked for more gains aerobically. There are many different types of workouts that can be created to tackle these challenges through a training year. It is good to have some workouts that focus on training one system, early in the training year, and other workouts that focus on more than one system, as the training year continues and as your targeted race nears closer.

Single speed bikes are a popular bike choice for those looking to work a day of good forceful efforts. This will depend on the gear ratio of the bike but most single speed cyclists use hard gears as a challenge. Working with too big of a gear is not always wise because it slows down your cadence. One of the goals of cycling is to increase your force while pedaling at 90-100 repetitions per minute. That is how you increase your power and speed in a nutshell. If you are always working with very slow grinding efforts, up hills, then you will have less transfer of force when your cadence is at 90-100 reps per minute. Maintaining a faster cadence, with forceful taps on the pedals, requires more endurance properties, compared to grinding very slow with a 30-50 repetition per minute cadence.

After a few good periods of training, working with good force and building aerobic fitness, you will be ready to tackle many races. The timing of force work, endurance work, and races, within the training year, is important for making good gains and preventing overtraining. Racing is a great way to work all ranges and use your newly acquired muscle properties, to make further gains. But with smart training at the start of the year, your ability to gain from each race, as the race year unfolds, will increase.

Mike Schultz CSCS