Fitness questions and answers for August 7

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.

The short answer to your question is "no". No amount of training would have made Pantani able to sustain 454W up the Alpe D'Huez. I'm not arguing that Pantani's training was perfect or that his power could not have been increased somewhat, but he was not a total slouch. Athletes at the level of Pantani and Lance are looking for the final 1 percent and fractions of a percent through changes in training. Lance's power that you quoted is 17 percent higher than Pantani's. Here's another way to understand this. Athletes have to have talent in the top tiny fraction of the range of possibility, and be trained very close to their potential to win at the international level. Otherwise someone else more talented and equally trained or more trained and equally talented would beat them.

Question regarding crankarm length. I have a 70cm inseam (yes, I'm vertically challenged!). I've been riding 165cm crank arms with a 36-52 in the front, and changing out the cassette as dictated by terrain, quite happily for the last 3 years. (I use 650 wheels) However, for reasons beyond my control, I was forced to ride 170's this past week. With a 39-53 on the front, same cassette in the back. What did I find??? I LOVED them. I was cranking out all sorts of new power highs with (seemingly) less effort, didn't get dropped by the group on the flats like usual, and felt no real difference with the "larger" pedal circles. I did not get to try this set up out on the local hill climb, though, before I got my previous set up back. My first lap on that hill today found me missing the longer crank arms. The 165's took some getting used to again.

My local guru says adamantly not to change to the longer crank arms, no way, my 70cm inseam is waaay too short for 170's. But why did I like them so much? In fact, it felt so much more comfortable...would I be a fool for changing over to the longer crank arms? Help! Was the additional power coming from the larger chainrings? Or the crank arms, or both? Yes, my fitness level is improving right now, too - how many factors can there be?

Thanks for an easy one. All the formulae in the world and all the expert opinions cannot compete with a good old "try it and see if you go faster or are more comfortable" test. The goal of the formulae is to help you pick cranks (or whatever) that will allow you to ride with comfort and power and freedom from injuries. If the 170s make you more powerful and eliminated the hip-flexor discomfort, they're better than the 165s. To be fair to the 165s, you may just have had a good day the day you rode the 170s, so if you have a choice, try the 170s a few more times for a more complete comparison, but if you feel good and make good power each time you ride them, get a set on the bike you use all the time. (And tell your "local guru" he needs to put a bit more thought into his recommendations).

I had a hyperactive thyroid, had radioactive iodine, and now have a hypoactive thyroid. I take replacement hormones, levothyroxine and a little triiodothyronine. Since January, I have been working hard to get back in shape on my bike. My fitness has gradually increased and I've gradually been able to ride further, faster, and climb hills better. However, in the past month, when I've begun to do some 100-mile rides, I feel as though I've gone hypothyroid after them. And recently my legs feel much weaker when I'm climbing hills, like they are turning into noodles instead of getting stronger. When a person's fitness and muscle mass increase, do they tend to need more thyroid hormone? Are my increased demands "burning up" more thyroid hormone so that I am digging into a deficit and will need to increase my dose?

Yes, the amount of thyroid hormone required to normalize metabolism and perceived energy level does change with fitness as well as with time, especially shortly after an ablation or the start or hormone replacement. If you feel that your levels are off, request that your doctor send you for retesting sooner. My vicarious experience with several clients suggests that you can arrive at a dose that keeps you blood hormone levels in the right range and keeps you feeling good, but it may take as many as a half dozen tests and adjustments. Stick with it though. The outcome is worth it.

Sometimes I have problems with bruises developing just above my wrist from sprinting in the drops on my road bike. I do not have the same problem on my track bike as the shape of the track bars leave more open space above the drops. I tried rotating the bars down to bring the drops further back, but then the anatomic notch was in the wrong place for my hands on the brakes. Is there any way I can adjust the angle of my road bars to alleviate this problem? Would switching to deep/shallow round drops help?

This message is mainly targeted to Scott Saifer. I enjoyed the response to the Optimal Race Weight question. I'm a Category 2 road racer looking to upgrade to a Cat 1. I prefer hillier races to crits and can do well, but need that extra push to get there. I follow a strict diet and during the season, maintain 5 percent body fat. I have a coach and the training is right where it needs to be. My problem lies with my pre-cycling life. I was involved in contact sports and got into heavy weight lifting when I was younger. As a result, I have way more upper body mass than a bike racer ever needs, especially to go uphill.

Scott mentioned losing muscle mass to achieve optimal weight. I agree, this is not something I would attempt to do during the season. How can I start the process in the off-season? For me, that's after 'cross Nationals are over. Can you give a more detailed description of how to do this without sacrificing too many watts? I think I could easily lose 5 pounds and maybe even closer to 10. My peak races involve 3-10km climbs ranging from 6-11 percent.

I am a 37 year old road racing cyclist. I packed in racing for 15 years and have now returned, 2 years ago. the problem I have is that I seem to be redlining all the time in races. My max heart rate is 192; when the hammer goes down in races my HR is above 180 and I can only sustain this effort for short periods of time. The real problem is when we hit a climb, I blow up big style after 2 mins effort or if there is a lot of counter attacking; also crits are out the question after 10 mins of racing. I have had a good winter's training, riding long rides over the weekends 3, 4hrs on sat sun and 2 mid week rides of between 2.5 ,3.5hrs . I would be very grateful if you could give me some pointers in the right direction so I can get back to enjoying my racing.

From your description of training it sounds like you don't include any intensity work. I suspect that this is the problem. The reason that you 'blow' and your HR goes sky high is because the intensity of racing is too high for you. This can be rectified by working on various areas of fitness -- these being mainly your sustainable power (i.e., TT ability) which is correlated with your lactate threshold, and your maximal aerobic power (which you can think of as the size of your engine) and is correlated with your VO2max.

I also have a fused (tibio-talar) right ankle and have considered shimming. However the effect of my fusion gives me virtually the same leg extension at the bottom of the stroke but as the ankle cannot drop my right knee ends up considerably higher than my left at the top of the stroke. I also feel more stable on my fused leg than on my good one and suffer sciatic type symptoms in my good(non fused) leg.

Generally numbness means that you are compressing a nerve somewhere or cutting off the circulation that supplies that nerve. Yes, it is dangerous. If you continue to compress a nerve the time it takes to regain sensation can get longer and longer until you get to a point where it stays numb for days or even weeks. I suppose the loss of sensation could become permanent, though I've not heard of this actually occurring.

Neither is "better" until you've defined better. You are on the right track with the idea that the intervals would help prepare yo for intermittent effort and the steady work would prepare you for steady efforts like TT's or break-aways and chases. One thing to consider though is that when you jump hard enough to raise your heart rate from 70 percent to 90 percent of max, it will probably take 45-75 seconds for your heart rate to adjust to the new effort. That is, for about half the interval time your heart rate does not match your instantaneous effort. There a huge range of efforts that could be described as 2-minute intervals at 85-90 percent of maximum heart rate. For short intervals, power, perceived effort, and speed on set terrain give a more precise prescription of a workout than does heart rate.

Here is a simple explanation and rationale for it. As a generalisation, we have two types of external musculature, postural and phasic. Some muscles exhibit characteristics of both and there is still debate about details but it is not a bad generalisation. Postural muscles, as the name implies are like tent guy ropes. They allow us to hold a position whether it be static or dynamic. Phasic muscles generate power for movement and have indirect postural implications if at all. To complicate things somewhat, some postural muscles can be also used for power generation by operation phasically. Some examples of this are the hamstrings and gastrocs.