There may be time that cyclists are confined to the indoors and forced to ride on a trainer.
It can be difficult to stay motivated and even more difficult to find new workouts that spice up your training.
One drill many people often overlook or fail to attach much importance to is one legged pedaling.
As you will see, not only is this drill great for adding spice to dreary winter months, but it also improves form and efficiency so you are killing two birds with one stone.
When you pedal with two legs one leg is always pushing down, and for the vast majority of cyclists the opposite leg is doing next to nothing.
Once you reach the top of the circle the other leg takes over and its opposite gets a break.
This is very inefficient as it causes you to sway side to side and utilizes unnecessary energy.
Perhaps over a short race you can get away with this kind of poor technique but for any of the longer you will be forced to correct this error if you want to seriously compete.
The best way to improve this element is through one legged pedaling.
Basically what you want to do is leave both feet on the pedals but then choose one leg to do the pushing, just let the opposite leg travel along for the ride.
A common way to do this drill is by riding for one minute with your left leg, one minute with your right leg, and then one minute with both legs trying to keep the same motion going as you were using in the one legged reps.
If you continue to repeat this over time you will notice that your legs spin in a more circular motion, which is much more efficient, and both legs begin to apply an equal amount of pressure the whole way around.
Do not be alarmed if in the beginning you have difficulties, it is likely that you have been pedaling improperly for a long time and your muscles are probably well adapted to it.
In short time though you will get the hang of it and I guarantee that pedaling in a higher gear and or at higher RPMs will take much less effort and will feel a heck of a lot better.