Fitness questions and answers for October 23, 2006

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 do not know of any studies or evidence that would suggest that clots are associated with cycling. I would actually think that it would be quite the opposite. Cycling promotes blood flow and, for the most part, blood that flows doesn't clot. Blood is a strange 'material.' I, as I would say, in my monkey-brained way of thinking, think of blood as not a solid and not a liquid. It's a flowing solid. If it sits still, it clots. If it flows, generally (the exception being clotting disorders - hypercoagulable states) it doesn't clot.

I'm a 24 year-old female cyclist, 5'6", 125lbs. I have a 51cm Cannondale R5000. I've been cycling for a little over a year now and I have some questions regarding where your pressure is while in the saddle. I'm a very calculated person in everything I do and I love to know the details. Everything that I've read and researched excludes the major detail about 'how' to do things, in other words, how they should 'feel'. They just tell you what to do.

While seated, where should your weight be? You can either rotate your hips back to sit more on your ischium or you can lean forward and place most of the pressure on your pubis. Being a female that has tried a few saddles, with and without cutouts because of a bad discomfort factor, I don't know whether I just don't know how to 'sit' or if my Terry CrMo cutout saddle is another one to throw to the trash. I have the nose of my saddle tilted down a little for comfort reasons. But I've found that anything other than flat terrain causes me to roll more forward (sitting on my pubis) and occasionally keep sliding back in the saddle - which gets annoying and turns into discomfort by the end of a two-hour ride.

Would chamois cream help this? It just seems like every time I'm done riding, I want to put caution tape around the area because it's so sore. Could this just be a misfitted saddle issue? I'm not sure whether I have 'wide hips' or what. The saddle I'm using now is by far the most comfortable out of the ones I've tried and why I've stuck with it. Only problem is, I feel like a might still have a problem. Any super light-weight racing saddle I've gotten on, I want to scream after about a minute. I definitely need a cutout, but aside from that, I don't know which direction to go.

I am a Cat 4 roadie, X-pert MTB, and train pretty hard. I have been hit with a few bad chest colds this year. After recovering from the colds, I coughed a little blood during a race. The first time was last February during a cross race, again in June then it happened a few weeks ago, and after a 10-day rest I did a hard ride today and had a small fleck or two come up. I had a chest X-Ray last week that was clear. Do you have any thoughts? I know that it could be many things, and I am pursuing further testing.

I was interested to read Kelby Bethards' musings on the potential for false positives in dope testing as I have been considering the same subject myself. As a biomedical scientist with a master's degree and over twenty year's experience, I have some experience of laboratory analysis of patient samples. I do not know of any current methodology that can claim 100% sensitivity and specificity - sensitivity being the ability to detect positives and specificity the ability not to return false positives.

The situation is quite different for athletes, however, in that false negatives may allow a small number to 'get away with it', while false positives can deprive an athlete of their livelihood and good name. For this reason I find the aggressive posturing of Dick Pound and certain sections of the media unacceptable where there is an undeniable margin for doubt. In some cases this is tantamount to a witch-hunt and I feel considerable sympathy for any athlete who has been unlucky in this respect.

I would like to add that I have studied the paper on which the test for exogenous blood transfusions which snared Tyler Hamilton and Santiago Perez [who was disqualified from second place in the 2004 Vuelta - Ed.] was based, and I consider the complaint that there was no false-positive study well founded. The requirement for athletes to prove their innocence (contrary to the burden of proof required in federal law) leads to the ridiculed 'vanishing twin' and chimera theories being propounded in desperation, whereas the onus should be on the researchers to investigate false positives before validating their methodology.

Finally, I suspect (though I lack information on this) that medical-based analyses for some doping products rely on parameters obtained from patient samples or from the general population, whereas athletes constitute a subset with altered parameters resulting from unique stresses and conditions. To illustrate this point, if cyclists were to be confined to a limit on thigh size, then a size range established by measuring the general population would lead to the exclusion of half the peloton.

I'm a 34 year-old Cat 5 rider just getting into racing after 15 years away. I've spent the better part of the year getting my position dialed in, but am finding that my pelvis drops to the right, making it uncomfortable to ride as I'd like. This has been verified by someone riding behind me, as well as someone standing above me on a trainer. I also have scary digital pictures to confirm my awkward position.

Before I purchase one, I'd like to learn more. Specifically, if I don't have a LLD and tightness is to blame, might I be able to correct this imbalance by a routine of stretching? If so, what should I concentrate on, hamstrings, hip flexors? I've found it difficult to understand the underlying causes of the imbalance. Secondly, if I shim my cleats and use an off-center seat post, will this be counter productive to my stretching?

To me, this feels like a guessing game, and although I can adapt to these changes, I'm not finding the results I'm looking for. Rather than pouring money into parts and appointments, should I just accept that I'm off-center now and move on? Mind you, I don't want to be uncomfortable, but I'm starting to feel like there isn't a magic bullet out there and maybe I'd be better served if I stopped obsessing over it.

I am a 29 year-old rider and I have just started cycling this year. I have found that the inside of my shoes is rubbing very slightly on the crank and causing it to wear. The wear is occurring on both the right and left side. The wear is worse on the right side. I have attempted to adjust the cleat position to reduce the wear but this hasn't helped.

Is it possible to get pedals with longer axles or is there something else that I need to adjust? BTW, I'm 188cm; my bike is a 58cm Specialized with 172.5mm Ultegra Cranks, and Look Keo pedals.

Ben Dore

Earlier this summer, you provided sage advice for me, an aging racer seeking to "hold his own" on a cross-state ride held in late July. I carefully followed your plan and, modesty aside, I think I did alright vis-à-vis my younger companions. So valid were your suggestions that my success spilled onto my late-season race venues, culminating [sound of my own trumpet] in a solo victory in my state's criterium championship.

Unfortunately, you've opened Pandora's Box for me, and the pressure is building for next season. I've just completed an end-of-season wind down, and am preparing my winter and early spring schedule of weights, riding, and cyclo-cross, all of which have potential 'rehydration' components. Do you have any tips for me? [Please note: I do suffer, from time to time, temporary vision issues and wobbly knees. What am I doing wrong? Was I over-training, or not working hard enough?]