Fitness questions and answers for January 30, 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.

When tested, the doctor recommended much more training at medium and long endurance zones, from 65 to 80% of max hr. Now, if I abide the old heart rate max of 184, virtually all of my training time is spent in those medium and long endurance zones. Is that correct? Or should I adjust to the new max hr of 170 (so far) and train at 65-80% of that number? Did the medication correct me? Was I broken before?

I hope one of the other panel members with more relevant experience will jump in here. My thought is that you should use your apparent new maximum heart rate and threshold heart rates to create new zones and use them. This means your new zones will be lower than the old ones in terms of heart rate. You might find it difficult to go slowly enough at first. It's okay to go slowly enough to obey them. The other possibility is to use power rather than heart rate to regulate your workout. If you determine your zones based on power, and recheck them periodically, you don't need to worry about changes in heart rate zones with different medications.

I recently purchased a new heart rate monitor because it has percentage of max HR display mode. I was surprised to discover that it calculates the percentage of max HR using the formula
HR = p x Max (call this formula 1) (where p is the percentage as a decimal, Max the max heart rate and HR is the current heart rate). In this formula, 0% corresponds to a HR of 0 (also known as death or soon-to-be dead).

Formula 1: HR (80%) = .8 x 195 = 156 bpm
Formula 2: HR (80%) = .8 x 155 + 40 = 164 bpm - a difference of 8 bpm!
So, assuming one knows their maximum heart rate and their resting heart rate, how should one calculate their heart rate as a percentage? Have I been working at too high of a heart rate? I'm concerned. Personal Info: 39 years old, male, 170 lbs, 5' 11", ultra marathon cycling and obsessive climber.

I've been having some issues with my lower back that I'm not sure is related exclusively to riding (for one thing the problem does not disappear if I stop riding), but I do think that riding can aggravate the issue. This problem seems to be isolated around the facet joints affecting the muscles there - If I were to ride with my saddle nose tilted up it would definitely aggravate it to give you and example.

I have been seeing a chiropractor who is well versed in deep tissue work and structural analysis. I have had both legs measured and it appears that they are the same length within a millimetre or two. Though when I first went in my pelvis was tilted - If I closed my eyes and marched in place and then stopped, my hips were shifted to the left so that my right hand rested on my right thigh and my left hand was a few inches away from my leg. Adjustment, massage, and stretching have more or less evened me up now.

My bike setup is pretty standard with my knee falling about a centimetre behind my pedal spindle and I can take my hands off the drops for a brief period without shifting forward - at least when my back is not hurting. Right now I have a shorter stem with a higher rise than normal to keep me from having to bend so much - I was basically reduced to riding stiff armed on my old setup due to lost flexibility in my back and subsequent loss of flexibility in my hamstrings. I have the saddle nose slightly turned down - not so much that I slid off the front when riding no handed, but enough to help me rotate my pelvis forward. I have been using the same shoes (Carnac Legend) for six years and I have a shim (single thickness of water bottle material) under my right cleat (I use Time pedals). I started using this shimming method in the late 80's when I had an ITB problem with my right knee and have never stopped. This shim is only on the inside of the cleat so it angles my right foot in much the same way an orthotic would and is only the thickness of one ply of a water bottle. Not sure it even does anything, but too superstitious to remove it now.

I have noticed the following about the bike. I use a Flite saddle and the titanium logo on the outside middle of the saddle is almost worn off on the left side, but not the right. Also, my front tire is worn slightly more on the left (my left as I am riding) then the right. While riding my knees/legs seem to be the same distance from the top tube and I cannot see that one knee is forward of the other (toward the handlebars).

So I know that with this incomplete information you cannot make a totally accurate diagnosis. I'm just looking for your first impressions based on what I have written and ideas of things I could look for. As I said, off the bike I am pretty straight now - pelvis square and legs the same length, and I am working on evening out my flexibility differences, but I feel that riding the bike tends to pull me out of wack (now there's a scientific term) over time and I'm at a loss as to why.

I've been riding/racing for the past couple years - I'm a relatively new cat 3 racer and I'm 25 years old. My height is 5.8 and I weigh around 145lbs. Although my weight/height ratio seems to be reasonable (or is it not?) for my level, I feel like I have more fat to lose. Most of this fat is concentrated in my (lower) stomach area and has proved to be very hard to get rid off. What is your take on it? Should I worry too much about it, and would you have any suggestions on how to get rid of it?

My problem has been right medial knee pain often acute at times plus inner calf tightness. So far I have discovered that the problem is a combination of a need for my right heel to angle in a little, right foot pronation, varus angulation of the right knee and a right leg approximately one cm shorter than the left. For the last two months I have been using a more supportive insole for the pronation from Specialized and three Lemond Wedges to counter act the varus angulation and angled the cleat to allow my right heel more inward movement. The improvement was dramatic but I felt that my right leg still wasn't as good as my left and after a period of exertion, say a long climb, the bottom half of my right leg both calf and shin would tighten up so much that stretching and 10 minutes rest was required.

As a result of this I investigated further and discovered the leg length discrepancy. The orthotic specialist has now made me a 7mm (tapering to 5mm on the outside edge) inner sole which I have just started to use. The logic being that the extra stretching/reaching of the shorter right leg was causing it to strain and fatigue more quickly. It is probably too soon to determine the impact of the inner sole. (Note; he also made up a similar inner sole for my normal shoes)

Is this the most efficient way of overcoming the problems I have been having? The new inner sole means my toes are now more squashed than before and as I use Shimano 151 road shoes which have a fairly wide fitting at the toe, I don't think another pair of shoes is the answer. One solution, I thought of is to 'move the effect of the insole outside the shoe' and to use more Lemond wedges stacked to compensate for the leg length discrepancy in addition to the 3 I am using for the Varus angulation. Is there a limit to how far your foot can be from the pedal or how high the stack can be? I have already trimmed the wedges but at times have trouble unclipping on the right side, I am concerned that more wedges may also make this worse.

I'm a 22 year old male, about 140lbs and about 6'2. When I found myself getting into riding a lot more, I bought myself a nice 2005 Trek Madone 5.2 SL, Sidi Genius 5 shoes and Ultegra pedals and was doing as much riding as I had time for. Since Christmas I've taken a break from riding because I've had back problems for as long as I remember - due to cycling as well as some other activities (I am a decoy for K9's so I take some violent bites from police and sport dogs that introduce some serious muscle ache into your arm trying to wrestle with 85lb German Shepherds). These problems seem to have become more apparent.

Having switched from a mountain bike to a road bike that is properly fitted to me has made a huge difference, but on longer rides I am still adding to existing back problems. I went to see my physical therapist today for the first time in a year; he told me that he'd like me to use tri bars on my bike in future, since it'll put me in a position that alleviates a lot of tension from my mid-lower back being able to rest my elbows on something and not spreading my arms to the sides of the handlebars all the time. It makes sense to me, but I'm curious as to how practical aero bars would be for me. I tend to change gears a lot, and, although I like to ride in places that don't require a lot of braking, I do need to use my brakes every once in a while.

Does using tri bars seem like a good idea for me? I tend to do anywhere from 15-40 miles on a single ride usually, shorter rides are between 8 and 10 miles long with an average speed of about 18-24mph depending on the slope of the road, the road surface and the wind resistance. I don't want to look like a dork by not being a "hardcore cyclist" but still having fancy tri bars on the bike; but as with everything you wear to cycle comfortably, if it helps my back on long rides, then so be it!

A little over a year ago I was having some pain in my arches in the mornings which would dissipate as I warmed up. Sometimes it would be bad at some stage races after a tough stage the day before. It seemed my winter running regime further aggravated it. I finally had it looked at this past spring and it seemed to be Plantar Fasciitis. I also decided to go from elite cycling to racing triathlons for 2005. I really struggled with this regarding my running and riding, but have managed to compete in some triathlons this past season. I've iced, stretched, strengthened, etc. Some days it's ok, some it's not.