 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I have two questions for your consideration:
1) My recent purchase of a turbo trainer has highlighted my somewhat jerky pedal stroke. Now I've realised this, is it something I will naturally correct over time on the turbo, or do I actually need to take deliberate action to improve?
2) When varying my power output as prescribed in TrainerRoad sessions, should I aim to maintain roughly the same cadence but shift gear to achieve the desired output? If not, what is the 'recommended' approach?
Cheers,
Paul
There are workouts in TrainerRoad that will address this, with pedalling and cadence drills. Just look for ones with Workout instructions.
e.g.
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts/1265-Eclipse
http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/workouts/1252-Monitor
Edit: If you follow the base training plans, they include these type of workouts.
Buy rollers. Your jerky pedal stroke will disappear, or you'll kill yourself 🙂
1) As mentioned above, there are some good workouts in TR to help you address this - my pedal stroke improved as a result of last winter's punishments.
2) Varying by gear or cadence depends on what the desired outcome is. Some of the workouts will have instructions as to what cadence to aim for. Broadly speaking, working at high cadence will stress your cardiovascular system more whereas low cadence will stress your legs more (for the same given power).
The traditionalist's advice to avoid a stompy pedal stroke would be to push your foot forwards through the top of the stroke and to flex your ankle at the bottom of the stroke. The latter can also be visualised as scraping dog poo off the sole of your shoe. Keep your upper body as still as possible while pedalling. Whatever you do, don't try to pull up. This puts a lot of strain on your hip flexors and they aren't really man enough for the job.
The pedal stroke on a turbo is a bit different to what its like outside (or on rollers) so your souplesse might not be quite as bad as you think.
Sometimes turbos don't have enough inertia to replicate real riding.They feel very choppy to ride.
I've found wind and fluid trainers better than magnetic ones for this.
The Sufferfest film elements of style is all about pedal smoothness, try that.
Also perform one leg drills at a low resistance for generating that kick/push/pull/lift feeling. It's all muscle memory so practice practice practice.
Rollers and plenty of track sessions will sort it 🙂
Rollers and plenty of track sessions will sort it 🙂
+1 for rollers.
Another vote for rollers or, if you can find any local to you, Wattbike spinning classes.
Turbos are rubbish for "souplesse", a lot of them are quite choppy to pedal due to the inertia in them and the fact that the back of the bike is bolted in place so inhibiting the natural movement of the bike underneath you.
Rollers are great, especially on a fixed gear. Likewise, if you have an indoor velodrome local to you, get along to their training sessions - you can always tell the roadies who have a track background just from their pedalling style and better general spatial awareness.
Wattbikes have a graphic representing pedal smoothness:
[img] 
[/img]
If your pedal stroke is choppy, you'll see it more as two circles than the nice "peanut" shape there so it's a useful tool.
Watt bikes are great to look at your cycling style. How smooth. Left/right balance.
Degrees of power in pedal stroke etc...