For about two months in the spring of 2009, I turned back the hands of time. At least when I was pedaling a bicycle.

I won, took second, and won the first three races I entered; moreover,several opponents told me I was riding better than when I won a state-wide, year-long competition in 2004.A 48-year-old who's competed for 20-plus years in any sport can never expect but only feel blessed to hear that.I was less than two miles away from winning the next race, a full minute ahead of the peloton, when the Hands of Time said, "Enough of that."As I took a right-hand turn at about 30 miles an hour, the back tire rolled off the rim, wedged between the rim and the bike frame. Slammed on macadam like a spiked football, my right femur fractured from the hip to nearly the knee cap.Rehab was lengthy - and painful - but by August of 2012, I won four races in a row and realized I was close to my old cycling self. And then on a training ride that November, a buddy crashed in front of me. In the attempt to avoid him, I crashed, too.My collarbone was clearly broken, but that wasn't the worst of it. According to my doctor, I have an exceedingly high threshold for pain, so I thought the "discomfort" near my crotch was nothing more than a bruise caused by whacking the top tube of the bike as I went down.I was wrong.The discomfort was from fracturing my pelvis, an injury that went undiagnosed for nearly a month.All the while I rode on a stationary indoor bike and taught my legs not the best way to power the pedals but the best way to mitigate pain.So why rehash such morose medical history? It's not because it happens to be the three-year anniversary of the second crash or that I'm finally feeling really good on the bike again.It's because one of the practices that helped me get to feeling really good could do the same for you.Mid-November is about the time that many people need to move their workouts inside. Quite often that means spending some time on that potentially mind-numbing device know as the stationary bicycle.The time doesn't exactly fly - even if you watch your favorite show or listen to motivating music. But that's because you only see the time on the bike as a way to burn calories and maintain a fair amount of fitness. To make the time go faster, improve your outdoor cycling - and dare I say? - even enjoy your indoor cycling, you need the pedaling to produce improvement.That's why "STQ" is referenced in the headline. It's a mantra I developed while pedaling to battle the bad habits I had developed from cycling with a fractured pelvis.The "S" stands for "smoother"; the "T," "tighter"; the "Q," "quicker."When I was recovering and not producing the power needed to create the speed needed to excel in races, I consulted an "expert" in the field.He told me that I needed to use bigger gears to improve my power. This made my rides, especially when climbing, more like a weightlifting workout for my legs.Maybe my legs did get stronger, but they also got slower. For instance, it was taking me far too long to get to top speed (and my top speed, the speed I can hold for five or 10 seconds after pedaling all-out was never better than average before the injuries).Worse, the weightlifting-like efforts robbed me of what used to be my strength: the ability to ride at 85-to-95 percent effort in a "comfortable discomfort" for hours.So I didn't race much this summer. Instead, I devoted my time to eliminating the intermittent pain I still felt during a maximal effort while teaching my legs how to pedal in a quicker cadence in comfortable discomfort.On virtually every ride, I would start out in an easy gear and think, "smoother, tighter, quicker."Smoothly pedaling allows you to expend less energy, so you want to stay smooth at all costs, even if that means pedaling in an easier gear. The mental image I often use is one of water falling from one trough to another on a water wheel.When you're really riding well, the pedaling can feel as natural as water flowing.Tighter pedaling produces what I call a "direct address" of the pedals. Previously, when I was in pain and my legs would approach the top of the pedal stroke, I would seek relief by "floating" for a millisecond instead of keeping the leg tightly aligned and pushing downward.Quicker pedaling means using an easier gear than may suit other cyclists and makes the work become more aerobic and less muscle-based. Since I possess a high percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers and few fast-twitch, my pedaling cadence needs to be quicker than typical.And since after some your stationary riding you're lifting weights and taxing your fast-twitch muscle fibers, it makes sense for you to pedal quicker than normal, too.Try focusing on "smoother, tighter, quicker" the next half dozen times you ride and you'll be pleasantly surprised. You'll definitely decrease the perceived rate of effort, which will save strength for weightlifting or - if you're so inclined - produce new personal bests on the stationary bike.