Well, this is an unusual situation for me. You see, I promised to release the new Time Crunched Trail Rider Solution on Monday the 11th and so far over 100 riders have signed up for this all new approach to improving your fitness and skills. However, I happened to finish early with it and it is now ready to go…and instead of waiting until Monday I am going to go ahead and launch it today!
So, if you signed up for the Time Crunched Trail Rider Solution then you should be getting an email from me shortly with a link to your first lesson. If you haven’t signed up yet you can still save over 50% and get the program for the pre-sale price but you will get immediate access to the first workouts, meaning you could be taking the first step towards improving your strength and fitness on the trail today.
This is the only training program in the world created for the rider who lacks the time and motivation to even sit down to read a manual to get started with a workout program. This approach will “drip” the info to you bite sized pieces, making it easy to implement one thing at time. You never have to read anything if you don’t want to as all the main lessons are delivered in short 10-15 minute videos.
You will also get 8 follow-along workouts and 3 follow-along warm up drills delivered to you over the course of the 12 week program. All you need is your bodyweight and a single kettlebell or a single dumbbell so lack of equipment isn’t really an excuse. The workouts are 15-20 minutes long, meaning that you can easily fit them into your busy schedule.
Along with the follow-along workouts you will get nutrition tips, skills drills and mental prep techniques that will help you enhance all areas of you training and riding, resulting in a much improved rider in only 12 weeks. You get a 60 day money back guarantee as well so if you don’t like the program or your results just let me know and I will refund your money, no questions asked.
So click on the link below to save 50% on the new Time Crunched Trail Rider Solution. You will get the pre-sale price but gain immediate access to the first lesson and workouts. Take the first step towards finding a way to overcome the time and motivation hurdles facing so many riders and get sign up for the Time Crunched Trail Rider Solution before this special ends on Monday!
http://www.TimeCrunchedTrailRider.com
It’s because of 2 things I can think of, surface area and the arch of the feet that gives stability in spite of the ever changing body position in a bike. The only choices of every biker when on the pedals are fore/aft, left/right, up/down with the feet on the pedals as stable as possible. Of course the clipless arguement will come into play with the word stability, but then again, the benefit of the large surface area is lost
I keep messing around with foot position, and one issue I have with a flat foot is that my foot starts contacting the front wheel on sharp corners if it’s too far forward. Part of the problem is that I have 10.5 shoes and a small 29er frame. Anyone else run into this?
Hi James —
Do you know of any way to get a midfoot position with clip in platform pedals?
What do you think of clip in platform pedals?
Not relevant to the actual discussion, but the examples given are similes not metaphors. A simile is a comparison: something is like something else. An example of a metaphor would be “The Cape Epic is the Tour de France of MTB”.
It’s because of 2 things I can think of, surface area and the arch of the feet that gives stability in spite of the ever changing body position in a bike. The only choices of every biker when on the pedals are fore/aft, left/right, up/down with the feet on the pedals as stable as possible. Of course the clipless arguement will come into play with the word stability, but then again, the benefit of the large surface area is lost
I keep messing around with foot position, and one issue I have with a flat foot is that my foot starts contacting the front wheel on sharp corners if it’s too far forward. Part of the problem is that I have 10.5 shoes and a small 29er frame. Anyone else run into this?
That is the problem with combining two things that might not go together – a small frame and big wheels. I’m not down on 29ers but for a small frame the 27.5 wheel size works better and creates more space for toe overlap.
If your shoes are 10.5, I’m assuming that your height is somewhere in the 6′ region? Though it may vary between manufacturers, but I think a small frame (subjective) may be too small for you. I’m 5’9″ with a shoe size of 9 and I’m riding a medium yelli screamy 29er.
Hi James —
Do you know of any way to get a midfoot position with clip in platform pedals?
What do you think of clip in platform pedals?
I think that there are some adapters out there to get your cleats back but I’m not sure. Clip in platforms are a good option but you are still dealing with the trade offs of being clipped in. You would also need for the sole of the shoe to be pliable enough to let the pedal body support the foot instead of just balancing on the clipless attachment or else you don’t get the same balance and foot position.
Assuming you can achieve midfoot position, and have the support of a full platform pedal, what are you calling the “trade offs” then of being clipped in?
Your foot is stuck in the same position every ride and every pedal stroke. This increases the wear and tear on the body.
You also have a very real increase of getting hurt as a direct result of not getting unclipped. I know people don’t want to talk about it but every year people are killed or suffer severe brain and head trauma as a direct result of not getting unclipped while going over the handlebars. We see 3-4 of them a year here in Grand Junctions (I have a friend who works in the nuero unit). You also have all the people who break hips and other body parts from tipping over and not getting unclipped.
The truth is that clipess pedals have very real risks and drawbacks. I know that the cycling community doesn’t want to acknowledge or talk about them but they are there and should be considered. I mean, if your performance isn’t going to increase that much but your odds of incurring an overuse injury or severe brain trauma go up by several factors are they really worth it?
Not relevant to the actual discussion, but the examples given are similes not metaphors. A simile is a comparison: something is like something else. An example of a metaphor would be “The Cape Epic is the Tour de France of MTB”.
Whoops, at least I didn’t call it an analogy…
What about engaging the ankle during the pedal stroke. Even when riding flats I still feel those muscles engaging. The stability argument makes sense when riding down technical stuff but I shift towards the ball of the foot when spinning.
What about engaging the ankle during the pedal stroke. Even when riding flats I still feel those muscles engaging. The stability argument makes sense when riding down technical stuff but I shift towards the ball of the foot when spinning.
One study showed that while you can engage the calf muscles more on the ball of the foot when pedaling that it did it at the expense of power from the hips. There is no power increase from pushing through the ball of the foot but you end up losing the foot stability and hip engagement. You want the calf muscles to be stabilizers to help transfer force from the hips into the pedals. When you try to move them you take away from the power that the hips can generate. This ends up placing extra stress on the smaller, more sensitive ankle joint and the Achilles tendon as well.
The way I see it is that if there is no proof that pushing through the ball of the foot adds any power to the pedal stroke but it makes it harder to recruit the hips then why do it? No matter how you look at it there is almost never a time that you want to be on the balls of your feet on the bike.
So, the term ‘heel dropper’ (during pedalling) is actually not efficient? But isn’t it (to some) a natural tendency for the heels to drop a bit when pedalling? If it is inefficient, is it right to say that the feet should remain at a horizontal position all throughout the pedal stroke?
The “heel drop” is trying to accomplish the same thing as having your foot flat and allowing for you to drive through the heel as well as the ball of the foot. The weight should shift on the foot but you don’t need to be up on the ball of the foot and then drop the heels – this is too much weight shift and doesn’t allow for as much modulation.