Fitness questions and answers for February 7, 2005

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.

Hello. I'm a 31-year-old Cat.3 racer in the United States. I'm 6' 2" tall and weigh 175lbs. My specialty is sprinting and I'm an ok climber. I have a 34" inseam. The distance from the side of my hip to the pivot in my knee is around 18". The distance from the pivot in my knee to my ankle is also right around 18" (inches). I use a size 47 shoe. A gentleman I have recently gone to for some coaching told me that my 180mm crankarms were way to long for me. He mentioned going with maybe a 175 or even a 172.5. Do you have any suggestions?

Just for some background. This issue got started because we're doing spin up drills where we eventually get up to 145rpm. I told my trainer that when I hit 130rpm (seated) I can't get much higher because I feel like my knees are going to fly out. It's like I start to completely lose composure and it feels very odd. I asked him if crank arm length could dictate how fast you can spin. That's when I told him the cranks were 180's and he looked at me like I was mad.
Thanks for any help you can offer me on this. Thanks again!

I've been riding/racing competitively for about 5 years. I'm 40, a middle of the pack MTB sport rider, and a very green cat 5 road rider. A couple years ago, I went to a USCF cycling coach and had an LT test done, and found my LT to be about 161. I followed some of the guidelines given to me during this consultation, but relied mainly on the MTB training bible as I couldn't afford a coach. I've since read a few other books related to cycling-specific training and I'm more confused than ever as to what my zones should be.
I have the following data, which may or may not be helpful - my max HR is 198 - I've hit this level 2-3 times in the last year. My resting HR is 50. My average HR on a recent one hour 40 minute MTB race was 178; I gave it all I had. On long (3.5 miles) uphill 4-5% grades, I can breathe through my nose exclusively and have an average HR of 172-174 for intervals up to 15 minutes in length. Given this information, can you tell me what my "training zones" are and what the difference is between AT, LT, and VT? Thank you for your time and I'll look forward to your response

I suffered back pain problems similar to those described by Neil in the Jan. 31 fitness letters. Like him, I tried exercise, stretching, chiropractic treatment and position adjustments made under the close supervision of a coach. Nothing helped, and I eventually gave up racing and considered giving up riding altogether. Then I read Grant Peterson's bar height theories and I raised my handlebars to approximately one inch below my saddle top. The back pain disappeared almost immediately. I wonder why more coaches don't consider this simple solution to back pain, as an aero position is worthless if you can't ride.

My name is Michael Kemp. I'm male, 28 years old, and a Cat 2 road racer. I recently had a medical bicycle fit. My fitting has produced some mixed results. I am extremely comfortable in the arms/shoulders/back from the reduced co-pit length, and additionally, I think my power/strength has improved with my now more open hip angle. Oddly enough the increase in power/strength may have revealed/exacerbated another problem.

I have a little scoliosis so I sit on my saddle tilted toward the left leg. I believe this creates a leg length difference. Also, I tend to pedal with my heel down more than my toe down. As a result, the left calf is tighter than the right (ie, because the left calf doesn't have to drop as far to achieve the same leg length). I believe this to be a muscular adaptation due to me having ridden in this pelvic tilted position for over 10 years.

I don't really notice any effect of this if I'm 'spinning'. However, when I go to use my new-found power, I really notice that my right ankle drops more. I believe my increased power/strength puts more stress on my 'tilted left pelvis/more flexible right calf' compensatory mechanism -ie- the increased power/strength placed on my more flexible right calf allows my dropping of the heel to additionally straighten my leg on the right side more so than in the past.(Sorry it took so long to get to that). In any event, I'm beginning to notice some pain (maybe more like stiffness) at the back of my knee as a result of this. It's like my saddle is virtually too high for the right leg. I don't suppose this was ever a problem in the past because my super stretched-out position prevents me from generating enough power/strength to stress my right leg. I feel like the two twins you evaluated. One was pedalling toe down and the other was pedalling heal down. Except I have one of each of their legs.

I've only made one modification in an attempt to improve the problem. I cracked a crank a year ago. So campy sent me a new arm. The problem with tapered squares is they begin to sink onto the axle further every time you tighten the crank. So basically I had two crank arms at two different Q-factors. Unfortunately, I had the wider Q-factor on the 'left leg/tilted down side of the pelvis, which only worsened my tilted left position. I changed the Q-factor on my left pedal cleat and that pushed my hip back to a more even position. Enough so that when I ride with my prostate now (sort of) sits on the right side of the saddle. A significant improvement in my pelvic tilt but my leg still seems to straighten when under my new increased load.

4) When spinning, it feels like my heel is not pressed as far back in the right shoe as my left heel is in its shoe. I pushed both my cleat back as far as possible to remove this feeling (I know your ball of foot forward of pedal axle so in case you were wondering. My shoes are about a cm too large, so moving my cleat all the way back leaves the ball of my foot dead centre over the pedal axle). So, I often wonder if I'm sitting with one knee further forward than the other. I think that's a twisted pelvis/hip. However, whenever I ask my girlfriend to observe me from 'behind and above' she makes no note of twisting forward on the right or left. Instead I get a "no dear' and a pinch on my rear. Could a twisted hip or pelvis (?) be part of this problem too? Are there any other ways to evaluate twisted pelvis?

I am a 58-year-old cyclist and in winter, because I am mildly asthmatic, concentrate my rides on a turbo. My resting pulse is around 54bpm.When working out I ride for periods of up to 1.5 hours, increasing gearing and heart rate after warming up. However, to reach 121 to 138bpm, which I understand to be the max for someone of my age, seems very hard indeed. Despite thrashing the pedals my max hr ticks along at 114-115 - is anything wrong or should I just push higher gears to hit the target?
Thanks for your help

I just picked up a trainer (from Performance Bike) that has a "power" readout. In an unprepared test, I turned out about 900 maximum watts. A friend said that he and others he rides with have maximums around 1200 - 1500. I know I could do a little better, but these seem very high - the Joe Friel Cyclist's Training Bible seems to indicate values closer to mine... can you point me to (or quote some averages for) typical max watts for amateur cyclists? Thanks!