Training and intervals on a commute

[Stompier]

Pushing a big gear on the flat or on hills is not really 'strength' training though - at least not in the traditional sense. Although it will force your body to work at a higher level of effort, with the net result of getting fitter. So it's all good.

 

[davidphilips]

Riding a lowish single speed, gives you just this. Strength training on the hills and rapid spinning on the descents.

Lol, Believe it or not i have been using a single speed Litespeed for the last few months on most of my club runs and have to agree with you, spinning was my biggest weakness but now i can spin up to over 30mph (short periods) with a 44/15 set up, can keep up with all but the Saturday fast club run on it and really enjoy a single speed now. Plus theres the added advantage that i can use the lack of gears as an excuse when i do badly on a sprint.

 

[Twilkes]

Okay so try staying in a gear that is one or two gears less or more than I would normally, and keep the pace going, I'll give that a try.

 

[Stompier]

Okay so try staying in a gear that is one or two gears less or more than I would normally, and keep the pace going, I'll give that a try.

Or just increase your cadence in your existing preferred gear, which will give you both an increase in speed and an increase in cadence.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

To go faster on any terrain you either need to turn the pedals faster in your usual gear for it, or keep turning the pedals the same in a higher gear. The latter is more force per pedal stroke.

To turn the pedals faster try doing 30 second efforts on a section of road with no junctions, lights, roundabouts etc. Gradually increase the time you spend spinning the pedals faster.

To push a higher gear at the same cadence you'll want to have stronger legs. You can try same approach as for spinning faster. Drop into a higher gear and try and maintain the same cadence for 30 seconds. Gradually increase the time you spend pushing a higher gear.

If you can't reliably measure cadence during these efforts then use speed as a proxy. So you might try riding 1 or 2mph faster than you typical speed during 30 second these efforts.

You might want to try it fartlek style rather than intervals picking suitable landmarks on the road for such speed play.