Fitness questions and answers for March 11, 2008

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.

Jon Heidemann (www.peaktopeaktraining.com) is a USAC Elite Certified cycling coach with a BA in Health Sciences from the University of Wyoming. The 2001 Masters National Road Champion has competed at the Elite level nationally and internationally for over 14 years. As co-owner of Peak to Peak Training Systems, Jon has helped athletes of all ages earn over 84 podium medals at National & World Championship events during the past 8 years.

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.

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.

Michael Smartt (www.wholeathlete.com) is an Associate Coach with Whole Athlete™. He holds a Masters degree in exercise physiology, is a USA Cycling Level I (Elite) Coach and is certified by the NSCA (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist). Michael has more than 10 years competitive experience, primarily on the road, but also in cross and mountain biking. He is currently focused on coaching road cyclists from Jr. to elite levels, but also advises triathletes and Paralympians. Michael is a strong advocate of training with power and has over 5 years experience with the use and analysis of power meters. Michael also spent the 2007 season as the Team Coach for the Value Act Capital Women's Cycling Team.

I've always had right hand lower back pain when racing, sometimes it's not too bad, other times I've had to curl up in a ball on the floor until the pain lessens after a hard race. People have told me that I ride with my right shoulder lower than the left. When I'm on the bike and look straight down at the frame, the top tube is over to the left of the downtube. I tried weight training over the winter, concentrating on core muscles, particularly those on the right hand side to try to correct the problem. When I'm on the bike I make a point of trying to hold myself upright and not off to one side.

However, I just did my first two races of the season, a one hour criterium and an 2 hour circuit race, and the back pain was still there, even though they're relatively short races, and I didn't ride them particularly hard. I'm a male 2nd category rider, age 36, 73kg, 184cm, and I typically ride 80-120k road races. I ride a frame with a 57cm top tube and 120mm stem. I did try a 110mm stem year before last, and this made the back pain worse, so I'm thinking of trying a 130mm stem.

I ski (alpine, aka downhill) 4 days a week combined with my regular workouts on the bike. For years I've noticed I'm blown after a big ski session. I wore my HRM yesterday for the heck of it and noticed by the time I get to the chair at the bottom my HR is at my LT. My runs are non-stop top to bottom which takes around 3 minutes haulin' ass, with a 7 minute high speed quad chair ride. Should this count as high intensity days in my journal? 3 X 7's?

When pondering in the inclusion of high intensity training, there are really two different things you are looking at. One the one side is intense exercise as it generates fatigue. From that perspective your skiing is certainly high intensity. I don't need to know your heart rates to determine that though. Simply the fact that you are "blown" after a ski session tells me that you are working hard and getting tired.

I constantly look at riders profiles with weight / height information and am amazed by the figures. I would love to see a profile of some varying size riders and there actual diets to give a better idea of how they do it. I am 187 cm, so probably classed as way to big to cycle competitively but some of the weights I see for some my size leaves me jealous. I have tried all types of diets and a Dietician. I would be interested in portion sizes etc as an interest, as we all know they do a lot more kilometres than the average rider Can you help.

I can't answer the question you posed, but I can provide some insight to help you be even more jealous. A strong pro rider doing an endurance ride for base development expends about 1000 calories per hour, and trains about 6 hours per day at the peak. That means they need to eat maybe 7000 calories per day to maintain their weight. (I may be off by 25% depending on the size of the rider, but you get the idea.) That means that they never have to skimp on portion sizes to loose weight or avoid gaining, except perhaps during a rest period or a low-volume start to training.

There are indeed ways to do the things you ask, but I've not heard of anyone teaching them other than the roll. I've seen a judo champion jump off a bike in mid-crash, throw the bike back between his legs as he leapt over the bars and then land on his feet running. Don't practice this on your good bike. I crashed my share of times and mostly avoided injury by using a gymnastics move known as "Swedish Fall", where one lands in an elbows-bent, push-up position and kills face-towards-ground momentum by throwing one leg up. Again, I'm not sure you'd want to practice this one at speed. It's safe and fun to do from standing on the floor.