Fitness questions and answers for November 27, 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.

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.

The first fit was in 2005 and I only had pain in right knee (lateral aspect of patella). The changes he made have finally reduced the problems with the knee so that I can ride. Now the left knee is the problem with pain along the lateral and inferior aspect of patella (same as right knee). Increasing stance width deemed necessary because of tibil varum (bowleg) bilateral. The right knee now tracks right over the right foot. The left knee however has a "varus wobble" in that the knee moves lateral to the foot at the top of the stroke with a subtle inward or medial rotation on the downstroke.

I spend a lot of training time on the road bike. I have been doing physio on my left leg for past 2 months (I could remove my cast) and my calf muscle doesn't look quite so skeletal anymore but it is substantially smaller than my right calf. My left thigh is now also smaller. I've been on my road bike on a turbo trainer for the past month to help build it up. My question is, are there any specific on bike and off bike exercises I can do solely on my left leg to even it up with the right? I don't want to start riding only to then have imbalance problems when my stronger right leg compensates too much for the weak left.

My hip feels great, my orthopaedic surgeon tells me my prosthesis looks fine in my x-rays, and he says I can ride all I want. I am actually considering the purchase of a new bicycle. The main reason is to get a bike with a triple crank to give me lower gears to make pedalling up hills easier. My current bike is a rather old model with 170 mm crank arms and only a double crank. All of the current bikes my sizes (56 cm) have slightly longer 172.5 mm crank arms. Do you think this small increase in crank arm length would have any adverse effect on my ability to pedal or the wearing on my hip joint (from the increased range of motion)? Or is the increase so small (about 1/10 of an inch) that I should not worry about it? The folks in the bicycling magazines say a longer crank arm provides more leverage so there is actually less force required to turn the pedals. I would greatly appreciate any insight or advice you could offer. Thanks very, very much.

According to manual measurements and observations on the trainer my left leg is overextending. I was told that my left leg is 0.5cm shorter than the right (I can't say if it's the top or bottom part of the leg).To compensate for that my left cleat was moved about 3mm forward. I've done some training with this setup and I can already feel discomfort in my left knee. Should I leave this cleat position like this or change it back to my old position (was according to Steve's suggestions).

I enjoy reading your column and have learned a great deal from it. My inquiry is concerning a scar I have just below my knee. I fell while riding a few months ago and scraped up the skin below my knee. While it was healing, I kept it covered with antibiotic ointment and a bandage. Now, there is a big scar there. I've been putting Vitamin E on it 1x/day for several weeks and not really seeing any change yet. Do you know of other treatment methods and their pros and cons to reduce the appearance of scars from "road rash"?

Feb 06 l had a femoral osteotomy and lower limb internal rotation. I also had about 24mm of femur removed to correct a leg length discrepancy. August 07 I had the hardware removed from my femur. I have now started back training, and am now seven weeks into my adaptation stage in the weight room. In the last week I have had a slight twinge in my right knee on the outside where the ITB attaches (the same side as surgery).

I wanted to thanks you first for helping me overcome my knee problems and move up the racing division. I am racing Cat 3 now and I am putting together a TT bike for myself and I was wondering is there any advantage to having the TT crank a bit longer than the road bike crank. My TT bike right now has a 175mm DA crank and my road bike is setup for 172.5 DA crank. I am 5'10" with normal proportions (legs are not exceptionally long and torso isn't also exceptionally long, kind of proportional). I believe my inseam is 87cms. Anyway I was wondering whether I should swap the 175mm crank out or the difference is small enough to ignore. I just don't want to wreck my knees and end up with patella tendentious again! I am not a exceptionally fast spinner, my AVG cad for my TTs is usually 85-90!