Fitness questions and answers for April 03, 2007

Form & Fitness Q & A

Got a question about fitness, training, recovery from injury or a related subject? Drop us a line at fitness@cyclingnews.com. Please include as much information about yourself as possible, including your age, sex, and type of racing or riding. Due to the volume of questions we receive, we regret that we are unable to answer them all.

I've been plagued with a rash in a somewhat "sensitive" area for the past few months. Last summer, a new pair of shorts gave me a wicked rash on and around my sit bones after a few rides. I've always "greased" the chamois, and am aware that, as bikers, we have to put up with the odd discomfort associated with many long miles in the saddle. But this rash has stayed with me since then. Can't get rid of it.

In order to gain weight that fast, it seems mostly like water weight. Most humans won't gain 5-8 pounds in an evening, and you should have, as you have correctly ascertained, burned some calories on the ride, thus need calories to maintain a steady weight. Granted if you can eat 4 lbs of spaghetti that eve, and drink 2 lbs (a quart) of fluid, well then yes you will gain weight, for a temporary period, but this is not weight "put on" the body.

I have a functional leg length discrepancy and associated muscle imbalances. I discovered this when I herniated the disc between my L4 and L5 while doing squats in the off season two years ago. I have suffered at least some form of mild to severe sciatica since. I have seen multiple orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists etc with some improvement. However, I still have a tendency to drop my hip while riding and if you drop a plum line from my knee in the forward position the intersection is different from one side to the other.

My sciatica off the bike has improved to almost nonexistent, but usually still appears while riding. What I assume to be my right piriformis gets aggravated and then pain starts to shoot down my leg. My sciatica seems to now be a muscle issue as opposed to a disc. The pain and discomfort often prohibits me from training and racing at a level I was capable of before the back injury. I am a 34 year old male and a cat 2 on the road.

I discovered while riding indoors that if I sit off to one side on the saddle the hip and leg don't bother me as much. I repeated the plum line from the front of the knee and found while sitting off to one side I can eliminate the difference. Obviously sitting off center of the saddle will cause saddle discomfort issues over time. I read all you advice and articles with much interest and recall your comment about modification of the FSA seatpost for lateral saddle adjustment.

There is no compromise to the structural integrity of the Data Head clamp providing you have the correct one. If you do, it is an assembly of 3 aluminium pieces plus two allen bolts, two countersunk washers and two tubular nuts. On the upper half of the seat rail clamp (serrated upper surface) there are two small projections that locate the upper part of the seat rail clamp laterally underneath the top piece (serrated lower surface) that the allen bolts screw into.

"Assuming you are using 53/39 chainrings, a fairer test would be to add just under 3% to your chainring size. For the 53 you have now, that would equal a 54 tooth if you want to be conservative and a 55 tooth if you want to be less conservative. For the 39 ring, replace it with a 40. Then go and ride for a period with similar foot speed and a slightly higher gear at slightly lower cadence and you will be making a fair comparison don't understand the relation you're driving at with this post."

Many people who try longer cranks struggle with them. Sometimes it is because the cranks are too long for their particular case and there are a lot of proportional and functional reasons as to why that can be so. But that is not what you are asking. I am not suggesting that the rider gear up proportionally and ride at the same cadence for increased power. I was suggesting to someone who had tried long cranks and wasn't happy, that they should explore one more aspect of changing crank length before they discontinue their experimenting.

Everything was going fine until the first race that involved big hills. I managed to complete the race but after dismounting my bike I had a lot of muscular pain along the inside thigh muscle on my left leg. I was hobbling along for a couple of hours, but it gradually worked itself out and I was fine the next day. This happened each successive Saturday to either leg after putting in a maximum effort on my bike.