Fitness questions and answers for May 6, 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.

You are on exactly the right track with the stroke volume idea. The heart accepts several inputs that combine to help it decide when to beat. There are stretch receptors in the heart wall that generate a signal. When the signal reaches a particular level, the heart beats, but the level that triggers the beat depends on several hormones that in turn are present in larger or smaller amounts depending on your state of recovery or fatigue, and repletion or depletion of water, electrolytes and nutrients. Thus the heart beating at a particular rate does not imply a particular rate of oxygen delivery or muscular work across all conditions. The longer the heart "waits" to beat, the more blood returns from the body to fill the chambers before the heart beats, leading to larger stroke volume and equal cardiac output for the same heart rate.

Recumbent cycling is a fine way to begin your return to race fitness. You'd get to practice the essential skills of making time for training and eating and drinking for endurance. You'd burn some fat and even develop some leg strength. At some point though you need to start pedaling in your racing position again. Even if the motions on a recumbent are similar to those on a safety, the muscle recruitment patterns are quite different and recumbent riding really counts as cross-training rather than specific training for cycling.

Tough question to answer without more information from you. To speculate with any authority I would need to know where your foot is in relation to the pedal axle on your current shoe / pedal setup. Historically Adidas have had their cleat mounting holes positioned much further forward than has been the case with most other shoe manufacturers. If that's the case with your Adistars, and I'm not familiar with them, and you have centre of the 1st MTP joint over or behind the pedal axle, then it is very likely that you will gain a benefit.

One problem with normal pedals is that for part of the pedal rotation (12 o'clock to 3:30), the foot and pedal are well front of the knee. So the pedaller is pulling the pedal back as well as pushing it down. This is inefficient in much the same way as the foot placement of a runner who is overstriding by reaching too far forward. But just as mid-foot cleats increase power by bringing the foot and the pedal axis "under the thigh," doesn't moving the seat forward and/or shortening the crank have the same result - with much less disruption of equipment?

I am a 36 year old CAT 4 cyclist and former age group triathlete, 6'1" and 190 lbs. I used to have the issues after intense run training, but I am now having them after bike races and intense training sessions. The main problem seems to be intense gas, so much so that it becomes painful to the touch, and my pants fit tight. Is there any relationship regarding gastrointestinal distress and the consumption of maltodextrin? I have experimented with many sports drinks. It started with accelerade, which I thought was due to the protein. I had less of a problem but still some with powerbar's product. I switched to hammer products which are supposed to not cause the problem, but I think it is actually worse. In trying to figure everything out, it seems to be the maltodextrin that is the common link. In fact, when I was a complete newbee hack and sucked down Gatorade and Powerade, I don't recall the problem. I guess that could be because I was not fit enough to put out high enough intensity to produce the problem. What are your thoughts?

Responses to sports drinks are quite individual, and you might well have sensitivity to maltodextrin. While there is a logical argument in favour of maltodextrin, I don't think it is essential to use of maltodextrin rather simpler sugars for sports drinks. In fact, the important factors seem to be that the drink should have carbohydrate and electrolytes and taste good enough that you drink it with some enthusiasm. If you handle Gatorade or Powerade well, just use them.

I am 53 years, and I've been racing since 1990 for fun and fitness. My max heart rate has always been in the low 180's and I have had no major illnesses in that time. I had a solid road race in late August of 2007 and transitioned straight into cyclo-cross season, same as the last 5 years. Early in cross season I had some poor performances that I could not explain, so I cut back on training for a couple of weeks, and then I took a week off hoping my form would come around. It didn't. I finally pieced together what was happening. For some reason I developed GERD in September right when my racing went downhill. I developed a pressure in my chest that got worse if I sat for a period of time. Also, my heart rate would not climb above 160 no matter how hard I rode. I would finish a cross race not with a racing heart or winded, but my legs felt like they had done a hard race.

Discouraged and confused, I finally quit racing and riding altogether in late November. I took 8 weeks off from any training/conditioning activates and had some tests run. ECG, nuclear stress test, and an echo-cardiogram, (I had these test done twice at different hospitals). Everything was fine, nothing wrong with my heart. I had an Upper GI, and all seemed normal there too. I'm taking Prilosec for the GERD, seems much better.

By mid-February I was feeling better and I resumed training gradually, I had the occasional good day, but mostly it was very laborious to ride. The weather finally broke here in Western PA and I started to increase my workouts. Again, I would have a good day followed by an absolutely horrible day. I was still only riding 3 days a week, so I was not overdoing it. I bought a new HR monitor and would occasionally see 163 or so on long climbs, but that was rare. I did a couple of crits and struggled to keep up with the field. Last Thursday I did my normal training loop of 45 miles with 4 harder climbs. I had trouble getting my HR over 125 pushing hard up a false flat, and could not crack 150 on any climb. I felt miserable the whole ride too. And in the last week, my chest has been bothering me more and more. Seems once I started riding more, the chest pressure returned. Mostly at the bottom of my rib cage down into my upper abdomen, feels like a strap across my chest.

I was thinking I might have a hiatal hernia that is made worse by the cycling position and was not caught by the Upper GI because of my inactivity at the time and the fact I was lying flat when they did the x-ray part. I cannot understand why my HR is so low during rides and won't respond to exertion like it always has. I have given up trying to race and am going to do only recreational rides to keep some level of fitness if I can ever get this problem solved.

My girlfriend, fairly new to road riding, has a 1/4" (6.35 mm) leg length discrepancy (LLD). She has just purchased a new road bike, properly fitted by my LBS. She is running SPD pedals and mtb type shoes (Adidas). I've read various approaches to addressing this type of issue including shimming just between pedal and cleat, shimming only the footbed, splitting the difference, or even looking at dropped pedal system. So my question is what may be the best approach given the shoe/cleat set up? She currently corrects in street shoes with a custom heel lift. I don't think that would be appropriate here. I personally like the idea of shimming cleat from shoe but having the cleat sticking 1/4" further out could be a challenge to walk any distance which should not really ever be an issue.

The first question to answer is whether the 1/4" difference makes any problems for her. When walking, the distance from heel to hip is the main concern, but when riding, the distance from heal to pedal contact is more important, and many rides with a small leg length discrepancy can adequately compensate by extending one ankle just a bit more than the other. If the leg length discrepancy leaves your GF sitting asymmetrically on the saddle, she will probably end up with some saddle-contact area problems, low back problems, knee problems or something else eventually so the discrepancy is worth correcting if she compensates with by sitting crooked rather than just extending an ankle.

I have been trying to increase my proficiency at protracted climbing. I have been doing rides of 50 - 70 miles in length with 80 - 110ft of ascent per mile. During some of the longer stretches of 11-13% grade, my lower back seems on the verge of cramping. I ride a triple with a 12-25 on the back. In those grades I am usually in the smallest chainring and the 23 or 25 on the cassette. My cadence drops to the high 40's.

For the last several seasons (3-4) my left leg has been going numb after about 30 minutes in the saddle when I ride my road bike. I don't seem to have this problem on my mountain bike. Standing temporarily elevates the numbness, but it returns after only a couple of minutes. I've been riding and sometimes racing the same road bike for 8 years and managed 3 and 4 hours rides with no problems a few years ago. I've never been professionally fitted, but seem to have found a pretty good fit with this bike. Unfortunately, my riding frequency has dropped substantially since then in part due to the numbness. I've switched saddles recently and that has helped some, but the problem still exist. I know that I put pressure directly on the bone (pelvis) when I sit on the road bike and am sore there. Definitely more on the left side. My main concern is that I've done permanent damage.

I have seen what you describe a number of times in the sense that a 'dead' leg occurred on the road bike but not on the mtb with the same rider. Each time it was a nerve impingement or vascular restriction and the lower torso position of a road bike vs. an mtb exacerbated a pre-existing problem. It may be that there is some positional issue on the road bike but in your shoes I would find a quality structural health professional who is a cyclist or has an interest in cycling and have that person structurally assess you and find out exactly what is happening. Dave and Kelby may have more detail to add to what I've said.