Fitness questions and answers for April 17, 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.

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.

Kelby Bethards, MD received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University (1994) before obtaining an M.D. from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 2000. Has been a racing cyclist 'on and off' for 20 years, and when time allows, he races Cat 3 and 35+. He is a team physician for two local Ft Collins, CO, teams, and currently works Family Practice in multiple settings: rural, urgent care, inpatient and the like.

Fiona Lockhart (www.trainright.com) is a USA Cycling Expert Coach, and holds certifications from USA Weightlifting (Sports Performance Coach), the National Strength and Conditioning Association (Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach), and the National Academy for Sports Nutrition (Primary Sports Nutritionist). She is the Sports Science Editor for Carmichael Training Systems, and has been working in the strength and conditioning and endurance sports fields for over 10 years; she's also a competitive mountain biker.

David Fleckenstein, MPT (www.physiopt.com) is a physical therapist practicing in Boise, ID. His clients have included World and U.S. champions, Olympic athletes and numerous professional athletes. He received his B.S. in Biology/Genetics from Penn State and his Master's degree in Physical Therapy from Emory University. He specializes in manual medicine treatment and specific retraining of spine and joint stabilization musculature. He is a former Cat I road racer and Expert mountain biker.

Since 1986 Steve Hogg (www.cyclefitcentre.com) has owned and operated Pedal Pushers, 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.They include World and National champions at one end of the performance spectrum to amputees and people with disabilities at the other end.

Pamela Hinton has a bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and a doctoral degree in Nutritional Sciences, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She did postdoctoral training at Cornell University and is now an assistant professor of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she studies the effects of iron deficiency on adaptations to endurance training and the consequences of exercise-associated changes in menstrual function on bone health.

Steve Owens (www.coloradopremiertraining.com) is a USA Cycling certified coach, exercise physiologist and owner of Colorado Premier Training. Steve has worked with both the United States Olympic Committee and Guatemalan Olympic Committee as an Exercise Physiologist. He holds a B.S. in Exercise & Sports Science and currently works with multiple national champions, professionals and World Cup level cyclists.

Richard Stern (www.cyclecoach.com) is Head Coach of Richard Stern Training, a Level 3 Coach with the Association of British Cycling Coaches, a Sports Scientist, and a writer. He has been professionally coaching cyclists and triathletes since 1998 at all levels from professional to recreational. He is a leading expert in coaching with power output and all power meters. Richard has been a competitive cyclist for 20 years

Andy Bloomer (www.cyclecoach.com) is an Associate Coach and sport scientist with Richard Stern Training. He is a member of the Association of British Cycling Coaches (ABCC) and a member of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES). In his role as Exercise Physiologist at Staffordshire University Sports Performance Centre, he has conducted physiological testing and offered training and coaching advice to athletes from all sports for the past 4 years. Andy has been a competitive cyclist for many years.

However, with spring arriving, I have increased my cycling volume and right away my problems with the calf muscles comes back, which would indicate that the problems comes from cycling, rather than from running. My problem is in general painful and stiff calf muscles, especially on the upper, outside of the muscles, which at its worst leads to regular muscle ruptures in the calf muscles when running.

Late last year I began to get cramps in my calves and inflamed Achilles tendons when racing or training hard, I lowered my seat to try and protect the calves/tendon but this made no difference, I then moved my cleats back so the ball of my foot is 6mm in front of the pedal axle. This seems to have solved the cramping/tendon problem but I noticed pain in the front of my thighs so I've raised my seat back to its original height.

The problem I now have is that when I ride I develop stiffness and pain down the outside of my left calf and also from my hip down the outside of my (left) thigh. Although both cleats are set the same it feels like my left foot ball is closer to the pedal axle than the right and on the down-stroke it feels like I have a thick piece of foam in my shoe and cannot develop full power (the right leg feels perfect!)

At your current height and weight you are pretty much ideally built to be a flat land cyclist but are getting heavy if you want to be competitive in the mountains. Seven kilos is a lot of weight to add in just nine months, but not totally out of the normal range for an 18 year old. Did you add muscle or fat? You should be able to answer that by pinching yourself on the belly and thighs. Is there more fat than there used to be?

This year it was my intention to start racing in March, and I thought that by this time I would have had about 5 or 6 weekends of racing under my belt. However, I've been plagued with a series of illness - gastroenteritis, then labyrinthitis with vertigo, and now a respiratory infection with fever. I have not done a single race this spring, and my training has been sporadic over the past month and a half. When I've been able to ride, I've been able generate good power according to my powertap (up from this time a year ago), but after riding for a couple of days, I'll be sick again and off the bike for up to a week. My wife thinks I'm not letting myself recover completely from an illness before I jump back on the bike, and this has left me more vulnerable to the subsequent bugs.

She very well may be right about this, but the situation has me somewhat frustrated about my racing season (nonexistent so far) and I'm not certain what I should do when I get over this current bug. Should I just go ahead and do a race and see what happens, or should I try to work into cycling gradually for a couple of weeks (starting slowly with endurance rides, then intervals) before doing any competitive riding?