Sorry if this is an issue that always comes up on the forum. I have spent a few hours over the past week or so browsing this forum and other's to try and get an answer honest! I haven't just thought about this and now expect eveyrone else to provide an answer. I'm continuosly trying to gain knowledge and tips on this. I was wondering if any of you could help.....
Before I babble on, basically I'm asking the following (I'll follow this up further down about my individual circumstances) because I feel like I really need to address my quads and improve my general techniques in managing these muscles, because from a cardio perspective I feel ready to take the next step in my cycling performance goals but my quad's are being more stubborn
1. Just how important is stretching leg muscles before & after riding? Dumb sounding question I know, it's obviously important but I just need to know a little more specifics like...
--> How much time should I spend stretching based on my cycling habits (as below), and should the main emphasis be on after my ride or before or both?
--> I'm only experienced in doing the basic quad stratching where you stand up straight, pull your foot up from behind and maintain the tension to get the strectch. Am I being quite short-sighted in only doing this type of stretch, I guess I need to expand my "tool kit" of Quad stretch techniques?
2. If I am finding my quad's are holding me back (as opposed to cardio which I seem to be doing okay with), should I be training my quad's outside of my cycling spells (see below for my cycling schedule)? I'm really torn about this, as part of me thinks, my non-bike days should be spent resting my quad's, but I'm worried that I'm being too lazy with my quad's and should push them more on non-bike day's, but then again, would I be interfering with my recovery time doing this and working the quad's more than they can handle?
3. It might be obvious, but to ensure clarity here, when I refer to "issues" or "problems" with my quads I refer to the general "burn". It's not like I suddenly slow down when it's uncomfortable, but I do find that it's an intensity of "burn" that sooner than my liking makes it's extremely difficult to carry on at the current intensity (especially hill climbing)
4. Cycling technique..... From what I read about this, I'm under the impression that I really shouldn't have my bum leave the saddle when I am climbing hills? However, I tend to do a bit of 50/50. Once my quad's are burning to a certain level when climbing, I'll lift my bum of the saddle and peddle, this seems to reduce the work load on the quad's, but am I just cheating myself doing this? Is this seen as "bad form"?
Okay if you've read this far THANKS, just some specifics on my situation now
--> I'm 34, been cycling for 3-months now. It's mostly commuting to work. I average 3 to 4 days a week on the bike (for me thats about 60-miles over the course of a week)
--> My longest journey would take about 40-mins on the bike and cover about 7-miles, so average speed of about 10-11mph I think. Lot's of traffic and traffic lights.
--> My bike is a very cheap MTB (not a great choice as am hardly ever off-road!). It's got chunky 1.95" tyres which I am looking to replace with slicks or semi-slicks (1.5" or 1.75").
--> Before I started cycling in early Aug 09, my exercise regime wasn't great. I'd generally only do about 30 or 45mins intense cardio work every 2-weeks (circuit class at gym). I'd also do about two days a week upper body weights (nothing too instense).
--> I've never really paid any attention to my quad's to be honest which might explain the entire thread here!
