Stomping – the downward PUSH on the pedals
Podcast by Chris McCormack
This podcast is the bike follow-on to the swim one by 2-time Ironman World Champion (2007 and 2011) and World Champion ITU and Long-Distance World Champion, Chris McCormack.
As a young triathlete, Macca outlines his introduction to cycling and how the high cadence approach, following the success of Lance Armstrong, was “the way” to bike effectively – and still positively promoted in many areas, including for triathletes.
Although not going into the reasons for it, Macca notes now that most of the top triathletes have adopted a low cadence, big gear style – he refers to it as the flat foot style – and with great success.
This is the approach we want you to apply and is why the STOMP session is such a key part of your training.
Very simply, this style that focusses ONLY on the downward PUSH on the pedals, develops muscular strength whilst keeping your heart rate low. This is exactly what you need as a triathlete (and a cyclist, and that’s a debate cycling coaches are having) as you need to save energy to run well after you climb off your bike.
The other big take-away from this podcast is that new, shiny, expensive, aerodynamic bikes are nice to have, but the focus for an aspiring and improving triathlete is to simply get OUT on your bike.
Indoor training is a necessity (2-3 rides per week) but there is no replacement for riding on the road and accumulating the road and bike handling skills that are necessary to race well (1 longer ride, at the weekend for most of you).
