Fitness questions and answers for May 8, 2007

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.

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 read your post last week about the cleat under the foot arch and it was very interesting. I've heard Mr Heine and his cleat positioning and have been tempted to give it a try on several occasions. Shortly after reading your article I googled 'Arch Cleats' to see how far one should try and move the cleat back. In that quest I found Joe Friel's blog where he praises the arch cleat position. In Joe's blog Mr Heine commented on purchasing adapter plates and/or just moving the cleat back as far as you can. Here is what he said:

"I do not advise to move the cleats back by 13 mm from the metatarsal/traditional position as in fact this arrangement may result in disturbances of the muscle chain. What I do promote is to build a shoe where you position your cleat under the tarsometatarsal joint, the midfoot, as this is the only position where the body automatically takes full advantage of the huge power of quads and hamstrings, therefore pedal way more efficiently." -GH

I understand why Mr Heine would suggest cleat under the tarsometatarsal joint is necessary to take full advantage of the position, but I am confused by why Mr Heine would suggest the cleat positioned somewhere between the 1st metatarsal and the tarsometatarsal joint (TMT) is bad for the kinetic chain. I understand that you are inexperienced with arch/cleat position, but since you have spoken with Mr Heine I was wondering if you might have insight into his thinking and how the kinetic chain becomes disturbed?

When I palpate my TMT it is almost 8cm behind the head of the 1st metatarsal and is 5.5cm at midfoot. The 2.5 cm back that my cleat (I'm sure most people's cleats only go back 1cm) can move is a long way off from the TMT joint or even midfoot. If this is the case, this seems like important info since so many Cyclingnews readers seems intent on trying this cleat position and especially since Mr Heine is suggesting that getting it wrong may be detrimental.

I'm 36 yrs old, male, 6 ft 170lb and was riding 200 miles per week. I used to have minor sciatic pain seven years ago down my right leg and that went away after a couple of months of rest in the winter. It's fairly cold here in the winters of Rochester, NY so I used to run during the winter (much warmer than biking outside) to keep my cardio fitness up, that is until getting Achilles tendonitis in my right leg two years in a row, so I stopped running for more than a year and got some very warm gear and biked the last winter.

I also believe this tendonitis was at least partially due to the sciatic nerve issue causing my legs to be extremely tight, with next to no relief from stretching and/or massage. I injured my back bending over and lifting too much 20 months ago and have since re-injured it three more times, once swinging the heavy bat in a cricket game, once pulling a wheelie on my mountain bike and the last time snowboarding - the actual severe pain from which did not come to fruition until riding my bike a few days later and simply reaching up to itch my head after doing some sprints. This last time was also by far the most painful and it took until this injury to get an MRI.

I would like to read more about positives and negatives of midfoot cleat setup. This set-up can be a can of re-positioning worms, as I see it. Just lowering your saddle say ~30mm means big changes to front end - i.e. remove all the spacers and even get -17 degree down facing stem just to maintain acceptable saddle to bar the drop? And what about those who only have 10-20mm of spacers now? Get a smaller frame with shorter head tube and longer stem?

And the saddle fore/aft position is affected by 30mm saddle drop (~10mm further back, possible needs new seat post), as well as reach, balance, etc. In my case my FSA K-Force Carbon Lite seat post won't even go 30mm further into my seat tube due to its shape (slightly thicker tube on the top section). In summary, I guess my question is more about positioning, frame and component traps due to midfoot cleat.