Fitness questions and answers for March 8, 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 am 60 years old and am getting back into riding after a break of about 4 years. I would like to get some guidance on how best to build up my strength and endurance. The problem I have is I seem to over-stress myself and then get aches and feel energy-depleted when I get back to exercise. When I went riding for the first time in over a year on a recent weekend, I rode (Sat) about 2 hours and did about 26 miles, then Sunday rode about the same. Three days later, I did an early AM 10-mile ride pre-work, and then got hit the next day with a bug that's kept me from riding. This is a recurring cycle -- start-up, over stress, and then since I don't seem to know how to judge for myself what I can handle or how to best plan an exercise strategy for myself.

I have years of experience riding -- riding 100-plus miles a week, but that was in my 30s-through early mid 50s. I want to get back to riding on a regular basis without going through the cycle of on-again, off-again because of the over-stress to my body. Someone recently asked if I take minerals, post rides, which I don't, (but I do supplement) and eat mostly well (but I have a sweet tooth and I occasionally binge).

When returning to cycling after a long layoff, you have to first admit that you've had the long layoff. Imagine that you are an absolute beginner. While you have the skills from your previous life as a cyclist, you no longer have the physiological adaptations. To successfully return to riding you will need to adapt to cycling again. You'll need to build up more gradually, and to strictly control intensity.

Of course, this is a good idea. You will be surprised how different it feels to ride with the front wheel elevated. Four inches represents a 10 percent grade. Some interval training in this position will help you to adapt and to identify weak spots. The climbing position puts more stress on your arms and the upper body. You will also explore more load from the saddle nose. The effects on the leg work are relatively small.

(1) Instead of a VO2 max test, my coach measured my blood lactate levels. It went like this: 15 minutes warm up at 100 watts, and then step up 50 watts every three minutes to exhaustion. The goal was to get my lactate threshold and max HR. My finger was pricked towards the end of the 3 minute interval, and blood lactate measured. The results were then plotted. Now, after reading a number of books, LT seems to be the same as AT, though LT by my coach's approach is where my lactate is 1.6 mmol/L (131 bpm or 70 percent of my HR max) and AT is 4.8 mmol/L (163 bpm or 87 percent of HR max). So, what does the LT measurement really mean? I see no reference to it in any of my cycling training books. From my coach's perspective, 131 bpm is the average HR I must maintain in recovery rides.

Eddie Monnier recently covered some of the issues with LT, however, additionally, I'll add some more. Lactate threshold, *is* different to anaerobic threshold (AT, which is generally an outdated term no longer used). Generally, within the scientific literature, LT is the workload that elicits a 1 mmol/L increase in lactate over exercise baseline levels (this would give you a lactate of ~ 2.xx mmol/L). The other main definition is a workload that elicits a lactate of 2.5 mmol/L. In both cases, this level of intensity is quite low, and is around 10 to 20 percent less power than that, that can be maintained for ~1-hr TT. In other words, this intensity (LT) can be sustained for up to 3+ hrs.

Part of the source of your confusion is because some people mean different things when they use the term LT. Ric and I have been discussing my response to last week's question about the definition of LT, which he mentions in his reply. In the hopes of avoiding any further confusion, I wanted to point out that while Ric and I differ in our opinions as to whether or not there are two (or even three) "widely accepted" definitions for Lactate Threshold among the scientific literature, we both agree that the term as usually used by exercise scientists refers to an intensity which can be sustained several hours. However, many athletes, coaches, and some scientists do use LT to refer to a higher intensity which can only be sustained for up to an hour or so ("second break point", OBLA, MLSS, CP60, 40K-TT power, etc.). "Anaerobic threshold" is also associated with these higher intensities, but as Ric points out, there is a movement away from using this term (in fact, it makes the hair on the back of the neck of some exercise physiologists stand on end!)

I recently changed from 172.5 to 175mm cranks. What difference will this make to the amount of power transferred to the road-I know that the increased length should add extra leverage out of the saddle, but does it affect the power when in the saddle? I generally peddle at a high cadence (between 85 and 105 on flat, and slightly lower when climbing). If I maintain the same cadence as with the shorter cranks will my power go up for 'free' or will it have an effect on heart rate, oxygen uptake, etc?

I'm 16 years old, 172cm tall, 59kg, and VO2 max of 68ml/kg/min, ride up to 400km per week, riding for about 2 years and with an average race distance of about 100km. I like to consider myself an out-and-out climber, and a so-so time triallist. However, I've never really had any good results, got the odd third place here and there, but never been able to have that extra kick when it comes to the business end of a race. I've been told that my numbers are really good for my age, but I've got no idea how to train for turning a third place into a winner. Should I push myself harder in training? I appreciate your help.

Your VO2max is good and suggests you have been gifted with an aerobic engine with good potential. However, as I pointed out in a response in last week's column, VO2max suggests potential more so than performance. Lactate threshold power (LTP, whichever definition of LT is used since they are highly correlated) is a better physiological marker in terms of predicting performance, but it's still far from perfect. If it were perfect, we would just compare test results at the starting line and then go home. Thankfully, it doesn't work that way.

I have all my athletes use trainingbible.com, which allows me to program their schedules anywhere I have internet access. Additionally, Polar, SRM, PowerTap, Ergomo, etc. are all uploadable. So the athlete uploads the file and it auto completes many of the daily log fields. Plus, I have access to the raw data. It's $119/year. For a self-coached athlete, you can use the Virtual Coach to help you with your periodization and in workout scheduling. Plus, there's a message board where you can ask questions of the coaches and other users.

Well it took me about a year and a half (and on-going) but I've set up a program and database that enables me the same functionality as trainingbible.com only through my own website http://www.coloradopremiertraining.com. I've been using it for about 2 years now and it's working great. The only difference between www.coloradopremiertraining.com and trainingbible.com (as of today) is that you cannot upload files. They must be emailed to me or any of the coaches that work for me. If any of you would like, feel free to use the login name "testuser" and the password "demo" to log in and view the training log and such.

Wow, you ARE old fashioned, Dave! ;-) I'm pretty sure that most of us who coach at our levels talk to their clients regularly. I talk and email with my Premium service clients at least once per week and often several times. An online log, however, let's me look at their logs as frequently as I want (usually every other day and certainly after any key workout) so that I can, if appropriate, fine tune workouts on their schedule. Plus, having access to the actual raw data gives me a lot of analytical power.