Cleat position

You know there is a lot of talk, scientific views, bio mechanical and general views on cleat positioning.
The general consensus is to mount the cleat above the ball of your foot. Sounds simple doesn't it?
But when you break it down and look at the range of motion of your foot and pedalling techniques it can get a little tricky.

Some people pedal on the downstroke with there foot level, others with their toes down and some with your heel down. Then there are people that mix up techniques depending on techy terrain, hill climbs, steady state or time trialling.

Steve Hogg has some unusual views on this with a different option of splitting the difference between all toe joints (balls of each toe) to spread the load. This in affect brings the cleat position forward on the shoe. Now when you think about this your really loading up the calf muscles (toe pedalling)

Without knowing it I believe i have been doing this for some time (years perhaps) and tonight moved my cleat way back.
(due to calf over soreness, tight spots and knotting)

I butted my feet up against a wall and placed a mark on the floor where my ball of my foot (centrally) then marked this corresponding to the bottom of my shoe. By resting it against the same wall and drawing a small mark on each shoe according to each mark.

I then moved the cleat (central position) back 12-15mmmm (it turns out this is as far back as goes)

I then did a 65min Carmichael video. What I noticed was power output (measured by gearing and cadence) not technical but effective went up massively.

I forgot to mention that the saddle height needed to be dropped and saddle forward to accommodate the new position.
This should in affect reduce the load on the calf by placing a higher percentage of load onto the quads.

It's raining today but hopefully I can follow up soon with some short term tests on the mountain bike and road bike.
If your trying this make sure your tyres don't rub your shoes when turning. (more of an issue on road bikes) due to the shorter geometry.

For more info refer to Winston Endall's Dialing in cleat Position for more power and less pain