Cyclingnews Fitness Q&A - January 22, 2012

The peloton on the road to Old Willunga Hill. (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Topics: Power to weight ratios, Returning confidence levels after a bad crash, Efficient cadence, Balancing aerodynamics and power, Recovering from a shattered femur

However, this strategy is ineffective from the perspective of getting the most out of your training, and here’s why. It is true that not eating before a ride or under-eating (carbs) during the ride will increase the use of fat for energy during exercise. This happens because you either start your ride with depleted glycogen stores or deplete them during the ride. Because your body has no alternative, it has to use stored body fat for energy. So far, that sounds like a good thing, right? But, there’s a high price to pay: if fat is the only fuel available, you are forced to exercise at low intensity.

I am a 21 year old female and my right leg is fused at the knee, which makes it so that I am unable to bend it. I am curious if there are any kinds of bikes that I could look into as I cannot ride a regular one. I am interested in just riding the bike around town. I really miss being able to ride a bike and have been looking for a while but just can't seem to find anything that I could ride. Do you have any information on this?

I'd love to say that you could ride standing with one leg straight, but that simply won't work. If you really want to be on a bike rather than a trike, a second possibility is pedaling with one leg, rigging a way to get your second leg supported out of the way and probably adding a weight to the right pedal to make it easier to get the pedals around. A recumbent bike would make getting the right leg out of the way much easier than an upright bike.

Ever since I discovered this wonderful website, I have eagerly awaited the "Fitness Q&A" articles because many of the tips you give others apply to myself as well. I am a 17 year old competitive cyclist, and though I do not consider myself among the elite, I do tend to place well in almost all the road races I enter. As of now I have been seriously training for a little under two years. Over the summer I ride 200 to 250 miles a week, and during the winter I use the bike trainer for about an hour a day for five days out of the week.

Last winter I encountered some pain in my left knee and decided to go to a physical therapist, he diagnosed my problem as Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrome (ITBFS), and gave me great advice and a stretching routine. Shortly after doing the prescribed stretches, my knee pain disappeared, but one symptom of ITBFS remained, I could still feel my iliotibial band flick over the bone protrusion on my femur. I continue to do this stretching routine three or four times a day, everyday. Over the next summer I returned to my training regimen, and made some wonderful progress, and I was free of knee pain, but the flicking continued.

After it started getting cold, I decided to take a month off with hopes of getting rid of the 'flicking' sensation in my knee, and I discovered something strange. My left knee became sore, not excessively so, but there was a small amount of pain when I would stand up from a crouched position or something of that sort. After riding again, I noticed this soreness disappeared, and then came back again after not riding for a few days. Once I resumed winter training, I found the flicking was still present, and the soreness in my knee was completely absent.

The 'flicking' sensation is caused by a muscle, tendon or ligament moving across a bony protrusion or landmark. It might be because you have some minor anatomical abnormality but given what you have said about your ITB history on the left side, it is more likely that you’re on seat symmetry when riding is not what it could be. ITB niggles that arise on a bike are almost always a product of dropping the hip on the other side and subsequently challenging the plane of movement of the hip on the affected side.

With increasing non-cycling related responsibilities I have fairly recently adopted a high intensity low volume type of training plan. My question relates to my rest days. If I take the day off completely I feel horrible and find it difficult to get up for the next training ride. If I ride at an active recovery pace (around 40-50% of threshold power) I feel better and the next day's workout is significantly easier to get up for. The question is am I hurting myself by riding on my off days?

The second question relates to the power readings on my power meter. I use a powertap and calibrate it before every ride. I am familiar with cardiac drift but is there such an animal as power drift? I find the wattage required to maintain a given speed continues to rise for about 40 minutes when it will eventually flatten out for the speed I am riding. This is seen on an indoor trainer so wind and hills are a non-issue.

Fun questions, thanks! No, you are not hurting yourself by riding on your rest days, so long as the rides are very, very easy. 40-50% of threshold power certainly counts as very, very easy. Moving blood through the tissues, stretching them, keeping the muscle fibers sliding over each other... all these are good for recovery. So long as you are not generating new fatigue, activity is good on rest days.

Yes, there is such a thing as power drift on certain trainers. For instance, I have several fluid trainers. In one of them the fluid seems to get less viscous as it warms up so that the power required to maintain a speed is quite high at first but decreases with time. This is the opposite of the effect you are noting. I'd guess that some part of your trainer is increasing friction as it gets warmer. To test, I'd suggest a roll-down test done in the first minutes of a ride and repeated 40 minutes in. If the roll-down time decreases, you know that friction has increased. Then you can attempt to determine why.

Scott Saifer (www.wenzelcoaching.com) is head coach, CEO of Wenzel Coaching.com and has been coaching cyclists professionally for 18 years. He combines a master's degree in Exercise Physiology with experience in 20 years of touring and racing and over 300 road, track and MTB races to deliver training plans and advice that are both rigorously scientific and compatible with the real world of bike racing.

Steve Hogg has owned and operated Pedal Pushers since 1986, a cycle shop specialising in rider positioning and custom bicycles. In that time he has positioned riders from all cycling disciplines and of all levels of ability with every concievable cycling problem. Clients range from recreational riders and riders with disabilities to World and National champions. He can be reached at: www.stevehoggbikefitting.com

Carrie Cheadle, MA (www.carriecheadle.com) is a Sports Psychology consultant who has dedicated her career to helping athletes of all ages and abilities perform to their potential. Carrie specialises in working with cyclists, in disciplines ranging from track racing to mountain biking. She holds a bachelors degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University as well as a masters degree in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University.