Cyclingnews Fitness Q&A - June 15, 2011

Steve makes some adjustments to a rider's seat positioning. A couple of milimetres either way can make a big difference. (Image credit: Steve Hogg)

Topics: Hyperventilating, Resistance Training, Form Management, Concussion, Salt build-up, Crank Length, Resting HR.

Most recently, I experienced this while doing a set of 6 reps of 20 seconds all-out, followed by 10 seconds recovery. The first time, I felt it only at the end of the entire set, but the next week, after I had mastered the technique and gearing and was putting out a lot more power per rep, it struck in rep 4. I had to suspend the drills. Both times I rode home with no problem and was no worse for wear, except a little residual soreness in the shoulders.

Interestingly, I have yet to experience this problem in a race. By way of comparison, I hit higher average and higher maximum heart rates in a recent road race than during the drills, peaking at almost 94%. In a crit two weeks before, I hit 98% of maximum HR and recorded a 2-minutes level at 94.4% In that same crit, I rode 10 minutes between 91-92% of my maximum HR, about the same average as I experienced during the structured drills that induced the symptoms. This leads me to suspect the suddenness of the effort in the drills or the hill attacks, versus the more fluid but even harder efforts in a race.

Informal consultation with a former physician/racer points toward "hyperventilation syndrome," in which rapid breathing blows off carbon dioxide, changes neural signals, and can cause parenthesis -- the numbness and tingling in the hands and arms. I gather this has been associated with high-level interval work and even high-level steady state work, especially at altitude. I live and race in the mid-Atlantic region of the States, so altitude is not an issue. Training rides in the high mountains, such as the Rockies of the Cascades, however, have so far not been a problem.

The little I have been able to find about this condition and high-level endurance athletes suggest I may be able to address it, or at least mitigate it, through a change in breathing technique. I have long suspected that I tend to breath too much through my mouth. As an experiment, I did the most recent set of drills with a nasal strip, in the hopes that opening up my nasal passages would help regulate my breathing better and prevent carbon dioxide build-up. No luck.

The obvious question if you think you might be experiencing hyperventilation syndrome is whether you are hyperventilating. So, are you? Hyperventilation doesn't have much to do with breathing through your mouth. It means ventilating (moving air in and out of your lungs) more than is needed for your activity level. There are at least two interesting behaviors that are called hyperventilation. The one we run into more often is rapid, shallow breathing. In this condition, a rider is not exchanging oxygen and carbon-dioxide deep in the lungs since the new air only gets part way down before it is pushed out again, and the old air gets pushed part way out before it is sucked back in again. The result is that the rider doesn't get enough oxygen or blow off enough carbon-dioxide. They feel like they are suffocating despite breathing hard. The cure for that type of hyperventilation is deliberately taking slower, deeper breaths. Sometimes chest stretching can help in this situation, as can blowing out against pursed lips, which triggers a reflex to make the next breath deeper.

If your problem stems from blowing off too much carbon dioxide, you'd be doing the second form of hyperventilation which is more like when kids breath very fast to try to see stars or get dizzy. You'd be breathing more rapidly and deeply than necessary. It seems you'd know if you were doing this, but maybe you've gotten in the habit and not noticed it? In any case, the cure for this type of hyperventilation would be to slow down your breathing rate. One way to do that is to deliberately hold your breath for a few seconds after each inhalation. Give that a try on your next few interval sessions and see if it changes anything. If you slow down your breathing and still have the numbness and tingling, talk to your doctor about other possible problems and interventions.

There are many, many possible reasons for your being unable to keep up in races. You haven't said what category race you are entering. 10-12 hours and 200 miles per week should be just about the right amount to allow you to start keeping up in a Masters beginner category race. You are certainly not doing too much mileage in any absolute sense. Many riders do far more and don't get dropped. Here are some possibilities to consider:

1) You may be doing too much volume or intensity compared to how much rest you are getting. How often to do you ride feeling fresh and energetic and how many times do you ride feeling tired or like you have to push yourself to maintain the pace? If you are often riding tired, decreasing ride intensity or volume will make you faster. If you are going above base pace for more than a few minutes more than 2 days per week, back off the intensity. Any time you feel other than excellent, take a short, easy-pace recovery day. Long rides should be at an endurance pace (no heavy breathing, below 80 per cent of maximum heart rate if you are using a heart rate monitor).

You've asked a simple question with a complicated answer. Simplifying too much, form comes when you've been training each of the energy systems you'll need for your sport a lot, and then you back off training enough to let fatigue clear up so you can really perform. Since recovery from different types of workout needs different amounts of time, and different types of workouts need to be continued for different amounts of time to optimize their effects, bringing on form is a matter of training a lot and then tapering, but the structure of the training and tapering can be quite complicated, and the most effective strategy for bringing on form can differ from athlete to athlete.

When form arrives, you want to switch from training up mode to maintenance mode. Continuing to train hard once form arrives mostly means being tired when you want to be fresh for racing. Again there is an art to figuring out what works for any individual, but in general it doesn't take much intensity to keep that part of form, and the more base you can get without compromising race performance the better. Riders who are leaders of their fields and can do races without spending more than a few minutes above LT can stay in race-winning shape for many months at a time. Riders who are in the red for many minutes in each race will peak for a shorter time, 6-10 weeks being common.

I was out doing a training ride about a week ago with a couple of friends when I crashed and received a concussion. I went down at about 24mph, and thoroughly cracked my helmet. After a trip to the ER, I was told I had a concussion and to not exercise a week after receiving the concussion, and wait another week to get back on the bike once all of my concussion symptoms disappeared. It has taken about a full week for my symptoms to disappear, and now I'm trying to figure out my schedule for getting back out to doing group training rides.

A lot of the articles I have read online about concussions indicate that you should get back into normal workouts extremely slowly. I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for a timetable to follow. I've seen advice saying do one week on the trainer to stay in a controlled, safe setting, followed by a week of short, low-intensity rides close to home, followed by a week of ramping workouts back to pre-injury levels. This is in contrast to other articles that say just take two solid weeks off then you can get back to high-intensity after just a couple of days.

Recovery from a concussion is not as simple as taking ‘two solid weeks off’. Depending on the severity of the concussion, there can be a significant injury that requires times of reduced activity and a cautious return to activity. Recent changes in the NFL and recognition of the profound effects of concussion have highlighted the importance of early and appropriate management of concussions. I highly recommend any of our riders who have sustained a concussion to seek guidance from a physician with specific training in the management of athletes with concussion. The physicians that I work with closely use ImPACT testing (www.impacttest.com) and guidelines to help determine an appropriate return. The risk is that with an early return to high level activity and a significant concussion, there can be neurocognitive changes that, while subtle, have a profound effect on long term resolution. Additionally, if a second concussion is sustained during a vulnerable period, there can be a marked cumulative effect.

My riding partners/teammates tend to give me a hard time about them. In general, i think i stay sufficiently hydrated, and have a balanced diet. I'm a Cat4 racer. I average one bottle every 20 miles (every hour) or so. I'll do a 45 mile ride with two bottles. More than that and i'll bring a third bottle in my pocket. More than 60 miles then i'll have two bottles and stop for a re-fill along the way. I generally drink diluted Gatorade, or a similar electrolyte drink, and additionally take some gels and bars. I don't have issues with cramping nor bonking.

It sounds like you are we refer to as a 'salty sweater'. The amount of salt in sweat varies with hydration (the more you dehydrate, the more salt your body dumps with the water you sweat out), but also varies from person to person. If you are doing a good job of staying hydrated (your urine is generally about as dark as lemonade rather than apple juice), then you are probably one of those people who just dump a lot of salt with their sweat. If your urine tends to be dark, drink more.

Being a salty sweater in no way compromises competitive ability so long as you replace the salt you are sweating out. If you get light headed on standing or after long rides that would be a sign that you are not getting enough salt that you might notice before cramping or bonking. If you are getting light headed upon standing, try salting your food more on a routine basis. (And of course if you are getting light headed on standing and eating more salt doesn't fix it in a few days, talk to your doctor).

1. A longer crank means more leverage for the part of the pedal stroke you can apply it, but often less ability to apply leverage through as many degrees of crank arc as with the shorter crank. In short, the crank arm will have to move further past top dead centre before you can apply any given degree of mechanical advantage to it because of the increased bend in your knee at the top of the pedal stroke.

4. A seat drop of 45mm relative to the frame means that the seat will move forward by approximately 15mm. This may have other effects on your position on the bike that are not necessarily easily predictable. In a static sense your weight will be further forward but with pressure on the pedals with the further forward pedal (45mm further forward) and will offset that to some degree. Again, only experimentation will determine this.

I agree with everything Steve has said here but would like to share a method of testing the concept before you buy, and an anecdote. As Steve notes, longer cranks mean more knee bend at the top of the stroke and make it a challenge to apply power over the top of the stroke. In extreme cases, too much knee bend makes it impossible to be smooth over the top. As Steve also noted, adding 45 mm to your crank length is going to bring the top of the pedal stroke 90 mm closer to your saddle, so to see if it's going to be possible to pedal smoothly over the top of the stroke, try dropping your saddle 90 mm and pedaling a bit. Of course the bottom of the stroke is going to be messed up, but pay attention to the top. If you feel jammed up, or your knees start getting sore, the 225 mm cranks aren't going to work for you.

Just because you are tall doesn't mean you can efficiently use long cranks. I have a client who is quite tall at 6'4" (194 cm) with proportionally long legs, but he can't pedal effectively even with 177mm cranks. With 172.5s, he's smooth as you could ask for. As it happens, despite his height he wears size 39 shoes and is not terribly flexible. One or the other of those probably explains his inability to pedal smoothly on what are rather short cranks proportional to his height.

Is my high resting heart rate in some way a liability? Is it the limiter on my performance? I race cross, but I feel like I’m a step below the faster guys. It could also be that I don’t have a cyclists body (short legs, long torso, wide hips and shoulders), or the fact that I’m battling a herniated disc. But maybe my high resting heart rate indicates I’ll never be competitive with the fastest riders?

Still, a resting heart rate of 80 is very unusual in a well trained cyclist, so I'd want to further investigate your situation to see if we can figure out why your heart beats unusually fast. First, we should match definitions of resting heart rate. When I say that, I mean your heart rate when you are lying calmly in bed in the morning after a good night's sleep and with an empty bladder. Is that where you are seeing 80 bpm?

My question is related to an accident I had while riding 4 weeks ago. I crashed and separated my shoulder, fractured 4 ribs and punctured a lung. I spent the night in the hospital with a chest tube in. My surgeon and my orthopedic surgeon tell me it will take 6 weeks to be healed but I can get back on the bike. Now over the last week I have been riding but my excerise tolerance is decreased a lot and now my breathing and my heart rate increase with any effort. This has been very frustrating because I was in great shape before the accident now I can't walk across the parking lot without being short of breath. In your experience how long will it take before I will be able to start training after this type of injury?

Unlike most amino acids, ß-alanine is not incorporated into structural proteins. Rather, one of the functions of ß-alanine is synthesis of carnosine in skeletal muscle. Carnosine, which is alanine linked with the amino acid histidine, acts as an intra-muscular buffer by neutralizing excess acid (hydrogen ion) production. Although carnosine accounts for only ~10-15% of the total buffering capacity of skeletal muscle, it is possible to increase carnosine muscle content via dietary manipulation. As mentioned above, carnosine is made in skeletal muscle from the two amino acids histidine and ß-alanine, and the rate of carnosine production is determined by the availability of ß-alanine, i.e., its concentration in blood. Thus, the rationale behind supplementation with ß-alanine to improve performance is that by increasing skeletal muscle carnosine content, the fatigue associated with acidosis will be reduced. It is important to point out that this rationale applies only to very high-intensity exercise that results in an accumulation of hydrogen ions in skeletal muscle--it is not relevant to endurance activity.

Although ß-alanine supplementation does not improve muscular strength or maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) or endurance performance, there is limited evidence that exogenous ß-alanine might increase work capacity during supra-maximal efforts, e.g., sprinting or cycling above maximal power. In particular, the existing literature suggests that ß-alanine affects performance during multiple very-high-intensity bouts or single bout lasting longer than 60 seconds.

ß-alanine supplementation has negative side effects. ß-alanine at doses of >20 mg /kg of body weight cause intense and unpleasant paresthesia (numbness, burning, prickling of skin). Thus, the maximal tolerable dose is ~800 mg consumed at one time. Because ß-alanine has a relatively short half-life, multiple doses can be taken when consumed at 3-hour intervals for up to 3200 mg ß-alanine per day.

Another potential undesirable consequence of ß-alanine supplementation is a reduction in the intracellular amino acid taurine because ß-alanine and taurine are taken up into cells using the same transporter. Taurine regulates cellular fluid balance and is an intracelluar antioxidant; therefore, long-term depletion of cellular taurine might negatively affect muscle cell function. ß-alanine is abundant in protein-rich foods and supplemental ß-alanine is not required to achieve intakes associated with increased muscle carnosine content, i.e., 3200 mg per day. For example, four ounces of meat, 1 cup of milk or yogurt and 1 egg each provide ~ 1000-1500 mg of ß-alanine.

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

James Hibbard progressed from the junior to the professional ranks as a rider and has over 15 years of competitive cycling experience. He is a former Collegiate All-American track cyclist, trained as a resident athlete at the United States Olympic Training Center, earned international medals as part of the U.S. National Team, and was a member of the powerhouse Shaklee and HealthNet Professional road cycling teams.

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.