Boost your leg speed with this quick roller workout – Bike Magazine Australia

​Anyone who’s ridden rollers will tell you that the faster you go, the more stable you feel. Staying upright and generating power on the rollers requires speed – that’s part of the reason that training on the rollers improves your leg speed so much. 

Improving your leg speed is a good idea for any cyclist; it often leads to improvements in your cycling efficiency, allowing you to pedal faster for longer periods of time. When you pedal faster, you put less strain on your muscles with each stroke.

The Essentials

To perform these drills, you should be proficient with your roller technique, but you can also use “bumper rollers” or a stationary trainer. You should always perform a 10-15 minute warm-up first and cool down for 5-10 minutes afterwards.

These drills should be performed once or twice a week.

Fast Feet

  • Perform three to five 1-minute “fast feet” drills.
  • Spin in an easy gear at light resistance, increasing your cadence to 100 rpm+ and hold there for 60 seconds.
  • Spin easy at a preferred cadence for two minutes. Repeat.
  • Spin easy at a preferred cadence for five minutes, then try the Super Fast Feet exercise below.

Super Fast Feet

  • Perform eight to 10 30×30-second drills.
  • Spin in an easy gear at a light resistance, increasing cadence to 120 rpm+ (but only go as fast as you can without bouncing in the saddle). Hold for 30 seconds.
  • Spin easy at a preferred cadence for 30 seconds. Then repeat.

Video courtesy of our American sister title Bicycling.

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