I decided to separate cycling and lifting because I need more time between lifting session to recover properly. I'm feeling too much like an old man in the knees when I squat down. Today was just sprints.
My first two sprints went 1238w and 1252w, the first in 40x16 then sencond in 40x14. I was a bit disappointed with this as it's only a ten watt increase over my best done almost a month ago. At this stage of the game I should be improving much faster than that.
I don't feel like I'm able to develop the leg speed and muscular contraction rate necessary to get the most out of the 140mm cranks I've been using so I decided to try 170s to see what happens. As soon as I started out I felt ridiculous, like I was high-steppin' in a marching band. I felt completely inefficient. Nonetheless, I was able to knock out a 1248w effort followed by a 1287w one, both in 53x18. I went 1.5mph faster as well. I guess that answers that question.
Hopefully my wattage will increase with improved pedaling efficiency alone and my power should increase with the extra recovery of the reducing the frequency of lifting. I need to get out of the lousy 1200s. I'd like at least to get to 1500w by next summer.
photos of some of my other builds
About Me
- randy
- Hi, I was born in 1960 and got interested in bicycles in 1992 and discovered recumbents in 1997 and have been building them ever since. I started "racing" in 2000 on a Tour Easy. I became interested in lowracers when I found the WISIL site and saw Sean Costin's Monkeyhand. I've been passionate about them ever since.
2 comments:
I think if I weren't deliberately focusing on streamliners and minimizing the pedal box dimensions, I'd be back at 165 to 175 mm crankarms. I think I generate more power
with fuller use of the legs for everything, from sprints to long rides, to hillclimbs.
For now, I'm spinning furiously with 125s to 140s but am going slower.
Yeah, that's a tough one. It's hard to know which is the lesser evil. If I were building a streamliner I think I would base crank length on the seat angle I chose to use. I'd use long cranks with an upright seat and short cranks with a laidback one but what I know about streamliners you could fit on the head of a pin.
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