Fitness questions and answers for March 1, 2004

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.

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.

I recently read the reply to someone else's question about the high-protein diet and how cyclist should consider it. The answer was, in a nutshell, that cyclists should not consider it because exercise in durations of long amounts of time require the kind of energy that only carbs can supply. Prior to reading that response, and at varying times over the last 3 years, I have used the higher protein/low carb diet to lose weight for stage race and road race courses that have lots of climbing. I did this successfully and quickly returned to a diet higher somewhat higher in carbs after the weight I desired to lose was gone. I noticed some rather interesting changes in my power output/HR while I was on the diet. First of all, my max heart rate was about 10-20 beats lower while I was generating the same wattage. Also, while dieting, the wattage to HR ratio was higher, such that I was generating more watts while on the diet at a given HR. Why was this the case?

I'm sure the staff might agree that cycling is a strange sport in that not only must racers compete for long amounts of time- thereby burning massive amounts of calories- but that those racers must also be extremely lean in order to overcome the physical obstacles created by the terrain of race courses. So, the ideal for a racer is to have a minimal body fat percentage while still being able to store and burn exorbitant amounts of calories. Training your body to burn fat is essential. Therefore, because consumption of carbs does not lend itself to weight loss whereas consumption of protein trains the body to burn fat and provides a control on weight loss, eating a high protein/low carb diet, at least when weight loss is desired, is a more reasonable approach to dieting for weight conscientious cyclists.

Are there some rough guidelines of the average power (at different time lengths, say 1min, 3min, 10min, 30min, 1hour, 2hours) needed to be competitive in Cat 3 racing, or if available, Masters (35+) at the national level in the USA ? This information would be very helpful to decide if it is wise to show up at a certain event for people like myself, living outside the USA. I also happen to live (and train) at very high altitude (3000 ft), so please let me know if the numbers can be directly compared to what my Power Tap reads or some adjustment is needed to compensate for the reduced oxygen?

There's always a danger in providing power "guidelines" for different competitive levels for several reasons. For starters, power levels should be normalized to compare across individuals with different body types (height and weight). Since most of our energy is used to overcome aerodynamic drag when riding on anything less than a moderate grade, effective frontal area would be the most appropriate means to normalize these data, whereas weight would be more appropriate to normalize data for climbing performance. And even if one did develop guidelines, there would undoubtedly be overlap between the categories. That is, there are very strong lower category cyclists who never achieve the higher levels because they don't ride smart tactically.

I am looking for a good training reference book. I have had a look at Lance Armstong's book but I would like something with a little more detail. I have just started taking part in Crits but have been riding for about 10 years and previously raced mountain bikes just at club level. My aim is to take on a more structured training program to help me make my way towards racing in A grade in both crits and open road events.

Thanks for the opportunity to plug the book recently published by Human Kinetics and written my partners and myself. It is called Bike Racing 101 and covers everything the first year racer needs to know about training for endurance, strength, speed and power; nutrition; tactics for different sorts of races; equipment; structuring a season and so on. It is written for the intelligent athlete who wants to understand and be able to coach him or herself. The authors are Kendra and Rene Wenzel with contributions by Scott Saifer.

I'd recommend you read several different books to see what fits your own style. In addition to Scott's recommendation, I'd add The Cyclists Training Bible by my mentor, Joe Friel. He explains the process of periodization, from planning the competitive year down to managing your workouts. Additionally, I recommend you read some basic exercise physiology. Personally, I have always liked Running: The Athlete Within by David Costill. It's a classic but does a very good job of covering physiology for the layperson.

In terms of endurance cycling performance (ECP), there's no benefit to doing weight training, and it may even be detrimental to your ECP. Forces encountered to turn the pedals over during cycle races are very low, and easily met by untrained age, gender and mass matched controls (in comparison to elite cyclists). The forces the upper body must generate are even smaller, and thus weight training isn't a requisite for cycling. In fact with upper body weight training it'll likely increase your muscle mass (via an increase in muscle cross sectional area) leading to a higher power output requirement when climbing and (possibly) when TTing to.

I agree that you can't really freewheel on a turbo, but on most of my rides I do almost zero freewheeling. Most of them are dead flat, with no traffic (riding along the canal paths) and no corners, not to mention the wind. Even getting out of town (Gent) doesn't require any stopping at traffic lights. If I'm riding in the hills it's a bit different of course, although the hills aren't particularly long around here. So it does depend on your terrain and who you go with.