Fitness questions and answers for October 31, 2005

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.

The current physio that I am seeing explained to me that my right hip is forwardly rotated and lower. When I stand with both feet together and go down my leg on the one side with my hand I can reach further on my right side than when I go down on the left side. He also gave me a wedge that I have to put in on the right shoe that lifts my right heel and part of the side of my foot. I wear this in my cycling shoe as well as my everyday shoe. The problem that I have is that after several weeks (six) of this and some good training the problem has now come back again, and I feel that my main problem is that no one seems to be able to understand what I need to do to help me sort out this while I am on the bike!

Do any of you recommend or counsel against certain brands of shoes with respect to functionality and pedalling technique? I have tried Sidi (so, so), Carnac (I liked these to some extent, but I believe they were half a size too small), and DMT (favourite so far). I should probably note that I use Sole custom footbeds in my cycling shoes. I need a new pair of shoes and am trying to decide what to buy from a functional standpoint. Are the new Carnacs lower stack height better functionally than before? Thank you very much for your time.

"The other consideration you need to think about is how this discrepancy has caused your pelvis to compensate. Many people like yourself, with a long right leg, will end up with an anterior iliac crest on the same side. This typically means that you may be sitting further forward on the seat with the right side of your pelvis and reaching a lesser distance to the pedals with the longer leg. To find out whether this is happening, fit your bike to an indoor trainer and while pedalling in a bigger gear, have someone positioned above and behind you look down at how square you are on the seat. You may not twist to the right because not everyone who has a long right leg does, but enough that I should mention the possibility. If you find this is the case, get back to me for further advice."

When I used to run, my right tendon just above the tensor fasiae latae would become agitated and inflamed and hurt for several days after, affecting my gait, especially when walking uphill. It has since stopped occurring, but I think that is from unconscious compensation.
My question is that since it is no longer causing a problem, should I leave it alone, or should I correct it for the sake of efficiency?

I think that if I lower my seat or move forward (both will likely decrease the work of the hip flexors) I would be more stable, but don't want to change my position with regular cranks. I also under use my quads/glutes in direct proportion to cadence which is similar to the prior posts. You probably do not recall but my left leg was always weaker, smaller and less efficient and the power cranks do help equalising my legs. Have you had time to ride a set, and do you have any ideas?

I'm 40 years old, male, a road and mountain biker (done a variety of races on/off over the past 15 years as a club team level rider - just for fun). I'm admittedly heavy at 200 lbs and 6 ft. I've ridden my body hard and as a teenager, I broke up my left femur in a gnarly motocross race accident and had two surgeries for it. Cycling generally helps and I always feel best when I'm on two wheels. I've never been measured for a leg length difference - can it be done at home?

Oddly enough the leg I broke is trouble free and the other has been problematic for years. When I first started road biking with fixed clipless pedals, I set my fixed cleats to be symmetric and I developed show stopper pain on the inside of my right knee. After some research, rest, and recovery I repositioned my right cleat to the max possible heel out position afforded by the pedal. The sensation was that my heel would like to be further away from the frame but my knee was now happy enough to at least continue cycling. This change, along with pre-ride stretching was adequate to keep me riding but the problem, while improved, persisted along tolerable right ankle soreness and obvious sense of body asymmetry. It was a balance between knee and ankle discomfort (I knew I could find pedals/shoes that would allow my heel to rotate further but I suspected my ankle would not hold up) and I'm sure I looked pretty strange with one heel roughly parallel to the longer bike axis and the other swinging into outer space.

Subsequently, I've used or tried a number of different pedals and shoes over the years but SPD or SPD-R (each with the floating cleats positioned as far back on the shoe as possible and as heel out as possible on the right foot) have been the only compromise (SPD - small contact area or SPD-R discontinued) that has worked out. When I tried the Speedplay Xs years ago, I was amazed at how far my right heal wanted to go and how much rotational movement it tended towards. Look ARCs seemed too sticky and I felt like I had to consciously reposition and tweak my foot to the seated sweet spot after any unseated effort and I had pronounced right ankle soreness. (I noticed a recommendation to trim down the rubber pad in the middle to free the float a little, but doesn't that lead to vertical slop?). The times I tried had spring to centre float and no cleat rotation adjustment - worked for the left leg but the right was obviously fighting the spring. Summarizing, my left leg has been robust and insensitive to any pedals I've tried (Look, Time, Speedplay X, SPD, SPD-R) but SPD and SPD-R with limited float have worked best for the right. By the way, I've always ridden SPDs on the mountain bike with both cleats at max aft on the shoe and max heel out on the right - never had any significant problems or discomfort with that setup with looser and generally softer shoes.

Based on the posts I've studied, I think one root cause theory having nothing to do with past injuries (best case maybe) is that I have a significant varus on the right foot that I naturally compensate for with heal rotation. The heal rotation relieves some knee strain at the expense of ankle strain. The SPDs have been more agreeable than other shoes because of their narrow and small contact mud shedding heritage allows for a less rigid connection and a little more freedom for the foot motion in roll. The float characteristics of SPD, free but limited in range, allow for sufficient and necessarily limited, heel out range.

I got pretty excited about the possibilities when I read a post by Steve Hogg where a guy had a similar heel out thing going on. He stated that as his Look cleat wore down on the outside from repeated road contact his heel migrated back towards the frame. Could it be that simple? Does that suggest a wedge under my right cleat (fat side nearest the frame) would likely bring my heel in and restore some symmetry after all these years? If so, is it also likely that my right foot will also be more stable (roll and rotation), making it worth another try with a modern relative wide contact Look or SPD -SL pedal? Apologies for the long history and thanks in advance for your thoughts and recommendations.

I'm a 45 year old competitive male cyclist, starting my second season of winter training. At 6'1" I currently weigh about 180 and lost about 20 lbs since the start of my cycling about two years ago. I try to eat healthy, but I don't diet and have not changed my high carb eating habits since starting cycling. With a reading of about 17-18% body fat (according to a fat measuring electronic scale), I still apparently have some room to lose more weight and increase performance if I can maintain the same power.

One concern I have is that most of my weight loss tends to come off the face, arms and legs, with these areas looking very lean (especially face) and other areas, such as chest and back storing more of the fat - although it is uniform. I realise that common thinking is that you can't spot reduce, but I'm wondering if there is any truth to the tale that some types of foods store fat more readily in the trunk area. I guess I'm not overly concerned, but if I were able to lose enough weight to reach my 10-12% fat target - which is not that low compared to most competitive cyclists, I think I would look like a zombie.

The problem at the moment is a re-occurrence of shingles when I start my higher intensity workouts. This time around my base period has been about three months long and I have steadily increased duration up to around 18 hours a week max. I had a heart rate cap of 160bpm (max 190bpm). This base period came after a four-month layoff due to another bout of shingles while training for the duathlon world's. During this time I was still active but completed no structured training.

I am fully aware of the correlation between overtraining and immune suppression; however, I monitor health and vitality, check morning pulse rate, eat very well and get good sleep so I just can't put my finger on the problem. Is shingles something that affects many athletes? And if so how is it treated? I am on an anti-viral medication called Valtrex at the moment. Is it possible to continue with light exercise or will I delay my recovery time? Also when do you know when to get back into it again?

In spite of this ill-advised punishment of my feeble wrist, a cast seemed to do the trick when I eventually got it properly treated. After about seven weeks, I was ecstatic to learn the fracture had healed. I had avoided the dreaded possibility of surgery and I could supposedly jump back on the bike - yeah! The problem is that now, going on four months after the injury and a month after the cast was removed, my wrist is still very painful.

I find it difficult to hold MTB bars on semi-rough terrain, paddle, XC ski, or even carry my small daughter for long. It aches and the range of motion is still limited, although very slowly improving. I am sure you have seen your fair share of broken scaphoids. So, presuming the bone really is healed (which I am getting rechecked now), is this typically a traumatic injury from which it takes a very long time to recover? Might therapy of some kind speed up recovery? Presently I am limiting my workouts to lots of running and a bit of easy swimming. By the way, I am a 35 year old who, as you can see, sometimes has a hard time stopping...in every sense.

I recently read your posts about cleat position and now realise that I may have been mistaken to follow the old adage about positioning the ball of the foot over the pedal axle. If anything, the ball of my foot was very slightly behind the axle. The problem has probably been exasperated by my laid back seat position (10cms behind the bb) but I guess that is all relative to my rather long leg length. I have a 90cm inseam, with the upper leg (hip to knee) of 46cm, and lower leg of 56cm. One other detail is that I ride 180cm cranks.

Anyway, I have just gone to adjust my cleats back and have found it impossible to get the ball of my feet as far forward of the axle as you have recommended. The furthermost forward I can get is 7mm, well short of your guide-line of 11mm. I use Shimano SPD SL shoes and cleats and my feet are size 46. Maybe I have excessively long toes? The distance from the tip of my large toe and the center of the ball of my foot is roughly 85mm. My shoes are a good snug fit in width and length so it is not just a case of the shoes being too big. Short of changing shoes and possibly pedals I can't see a way around the situation.