Fitness questions and answers for May 1, 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 am an elite level road cyclist from the UK, racing full time in France, I am 23 years old and male. I am currently back at home because of a broken collarbone from a crash whilst racing. It has been 9 days and I have changed from being unable to move my arm at all to an almost full range of movement (albeit very slow cautious movement). 3 days after the crash I was on my turbo trainer (would have been sooner had I not been travelling home etc.), after 4 days I could ride on the drops/hoods/tops/standing up, supporting my weight normally and the other day I even rode on the road on my town bike for a few miles (quite painful, though). I have just returned from the fracture clinic this morning, I was told it would take 12 weeks to fully heal. Is this really true?

I was also told I could reduce my recovery time by having a plate attached to the collarbone. This would undo do all my recovery up until now but reduce the recovery time from 12 to 6-8 weeks. Previous broken collarbone questions to Q&A have been given the reply 6 weeks until riding again. What should I do? I need to be racing again as soon as possible. Is unnecessary surgery worth the risk? My instinct is to say no, it isn't. Also, we must bear in mind the fantastic, free National Health Service we have in the UK, lucky as we are to have it, it does get a little fully booked so there could be a waiting period eliminating any shortening of the recovery period anyway and I've already 'lost' 9 days.

Two weeks ago I was involved in a crash which left me with slight swelling on my palm between the thumb and index finger, and a small amount of wrist pain. A back slab was immediately fitted and subsequent MRI revealed a non-displaced scaphoid fracture across the distal pole. The wrist was immobilised in a short thumb spica fibreglass cast within 3 days of the fracture occurrence. I am attempting to maintain aerobic fitness by using the trainer/spin bike and strength by core and leg training at the gym.

I understand scaphoid fractures are not uncommon in our sport and yet I hear of professional riders resuming training within 2 weeks of similar, or more severe, scaphoid fractures. Unfortunately it is difficult to find a specialist who can empathise with our desire to resume training (and in my case also work) as soon as possible. Given the present 6 week immobilisation prognosis, I would be grateful if you could suggest other treatment options that may be available which may accelerate the treatment of this type of fracture, or, at the very least allow training back on the road.

I have seen many of these fractures. From ski accidents and also bike crashes. This bone is a bugger to heal. It has, as has been mentioned, a poor blood supply. The fact it is on the distal pole should (read - we hope so) be easier to heal than the proximal version since the blood supply tends to enter the bone from the distal end. As far as quicker way to heal - there isn't any quick and easy way for these to heal.

I'm a 41 year old cat 2 with no significant health problems. However, I developed shingles just a few days ago (following a minor crash and a stressful week at work). I'm being treated with prednisone, acyclovir and Lortab, and was told to get lots of rest. But I'm unsure of how much rest I should take. I am feeling reasonably good. Can I ride? How hard or long can I ride? How long before I could race or train with intensity? Do I put myself at risk for post-herpetic neuralgia or other complications by not resting adequately?

I'm a 57 year old cyclist and am interested in your current thoughts on handling inflammation / micro trauma / post ride pain. I am 5'10", 180#, 13% body fat. I finished a 21 mile rolling hill time trail last weekend in 53 minutes [the top time was 39'50", I was 42nd out of about 128 riders]. My interests are relative fast centuries, an occasional MTB race, and multi-sport events [events that mix skiing, running, cycling, paddling, mountain biking]

Every once in a while I get a question like this: riders who have soreness or stiffness after hard rides, and I scratch my head. I really rarely get that question from my own clients and never had that experience myself. Maybe the other panellists will jump in with their own experiences and ideas, but my guess is that you don't have the endurance or possibly strength base to handle the hard efforts that you are making. You are right to ascribe the muscle pain to micro-trauma, but the question is why you would have that micro-trauma enough that you are aware of it while many other riders don't. It sounds like you are not adequately conditioned to the work you are trying to do, and the two forms of conditioning one can do for cycling are base riding, and high-force training (either on-bike, low cadence work or gym work).

We go 25-35mph depending on the section. I stay just on the edge of the bumper right or left to get some wind and see ahead. I am so much faster because of this training and have a huge kick on the last laps in the crits(I do two or more races depending on time) but would like to have a bit more to stick an attack, two or three times during the crit / rr. Also I would like some bridging power as well. If you have some workout ideas that I could incorporate into my training I would appreciate it.

I am a 44 year old male, used to ride a lot and lately have no time. I have just started my (late) spring training with my new Polar Heart rate monitor (first time training with a monitor). I was doing some light spinning on the flat and noticed that my heart rate was relatively constant at around 174 but often exceeding 180 (max was 184 that I am aware of). I am not terribly fit at the moment and my resting heart rate is at 60 (it used to be 42 in the old days) and I hover around 100 when getting ready to leave (walking around the house figuring out where my wife put all my cycling gear).

I did not feel that I was pushing very hard and was certainly not fatigued at the end of the ride and had no muscle pain the next day. My theoretical maximum should be 210-44/2=188 so I was approaching this without any real effort. Should I be worried? Is there a problem training near the theoretical maximal rate? I guess my body will let me know rather quickly if I am exceeding the aerobic threshold especially in its current condition... Am I risking a coronary?

So, you are requesting an explanation of EBV.....I wish I had a good one. EBV is a bugger. So, let's start with EBV. Epstein-Barr Virus. This is a virus in the Herpes Virus clan (I know I know, viruses aren't classified in "clans" but I like it that way.) It is the virus which causes Mono (i.e. Infectious Mononucleosis - the kissing disease). Infectious Mononucleosis can be EBV negative but that is another story.