Fitness questions and answers for September 13, 2004

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.

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 am a 42 year old male masters 3 cyclist. I am 6' tall and weigh 75kg. I have been racing for 1 year after a 11 year lay off. Before that I raced for ten years. I have steadily improved my fitness level over the past year and train around 400k's a week. I have no problem staying with the bunch or in a breakaway, I can ride at speed no problem. I find I can usually place in the 1st 3 riders in a bunch sprint. But my biggest weakness is bridging the gap of a strong attack during the race. Unless I am right on the attackers wheel I just can't seem to bridge the gap, if they get 50 or so meters up the road. This is not always the case but has happened a few times lately at the business end of the race, say in the last 2 - 5 km. Can you suggest some training tips that could improve my initial kick and also so that I can sustain the higher pace long enough to catch a break. Because I work early morning and then again in the afternoon and evening I usually do most of my training by myself in the middle of the day, so don't have anyone to sprint with.

Your problem lies with a need to improve your anaerobic capacity/power which enables you to sustain high power outputs for a short period of time. You can get this through integrating short intervals of between 30sec and 2min efforts at high intensity into your weekly training routine. Efforts can vary between 5 and 10 for 2min intervals with 5 to 10min recovery or up to 20 reps of 30sec efforts with a 1:1 or 1:2 recovery depending on the intensity.

I've been training since a very early age, but only started road riding about a year ago, following aggravating an old injury to my Achilles I started to ride with one of the instructors at the gym that I'm a member off, who said about training to heart rate zones, which I had never done before. Based on the 220-your age(23) that made my max. 197 but after doing some sprints I found that I could easily hit 205. I read something about a method of testing for your max. which I did and scored 210. So I've tried to base my training zones on this figure, but I can cruise along at 190 on the bike and 195 on the tread mill which is in excess 90%. My resting rate is around 47-49 The advise from the gym is mixed some say I should back off others say its okay as long as I feel okay. Is normal or am I just a freak?

First, the 220 minus your age estimate of max HR works okay for a large cross-section of the population, but can be off wildly for any particular individual and for limited size samples. Even if it were accurate, I am not an advocate of tying training zones to max achievable heart rate because max heart rate is not very responsive to training. In fact, for many individuals, it decreases with training. Rather, I advocate the use of basing HR training zones off of an estimate of HR at Lactate Threshold (LT). While there varying definitions and associated intensities for LT, I am referring here to the upper end of the intensity ranges associated with it. One quick and easy way to estimate this is to do an all-out 30-minute effort while wearing a HR monitor in training. Average your HR for the last 20-minutes of the effort. This average is a reasonable estimate of the heart rate to which I tie training zones. Of course, HR is subject to many variables (eg, diet, heat, humidity, state of rest, etc.) so we look for confirming data and trends over time rather than taking one single test as definitive and fixed. We typically test every four to six weeks, too, since LT is responsive to training.

When tested, the doctor recommended much more training at medium and long endurance zones, from 65 to 80% of max hr. Now, if I abide the old heart rate max of 184, virtually all of my training time is spent in those medium and lond endurance zones. Is that correct? Or should I adjust to the new max hr of 170 (so far) and train at 65-80% of that number? Did the medication correct me? Was I broken before?

I hope one of the other panel members with more relevant experience will jump in here. My thought is that you should use your apparent new maximum heart rate and threshold heart rates to create new zones and use them. This means your new zones will be lower than the old ones in terms of heart rate. You might find it difficult to go slowly enough at first. It's okay to go slowly enough to obey them. The other possibility is to use power rather than heart rate to regulate your workout. If you determine your zones based on power, and recheck them periodically, you don't need to worry about changes in heart rate zones with different medications.

2. Riding time and intensity. I have a had a down year, a lot of personal issues early in the year threw me out of sync. From a psychological point of view it has taken me almost until now to mostly sort things out. I started feeling good in July and thought I might try to race in August. After a three hard weekends I fell apart and couldn't keep up on group rides so I laid off the intense stuff (and didn't race either). This was 8/14. The following weekend I did not ride at all, as we had company over. During this weekend is when I first felt this sensation. When I leaned over with a straight leg to pick something up I felt a "ping", for lack of a better word. It wasn't an outright pain.

e) I frequently have a dull pain around my right shoulder blade, which doesn't bother me on the bike unless I am doing a long technical decent in which it becomes a burning sensation. It is as if the muscle is very fatigued. It very painful during these times. Otherwise it bothers me most off the bike at work or when I am doing the dishes or something at home. But it does let up when I do not ride as much, like now.

Since the feel of my pedaling is different for each leg and with the knee/hip/knee/back problem, I am going to a chiropractor who has cycling related experience. I have had my position changed a few times over the last five years. Two times by shop people and one time by "professional" ($300). None of these has comprehensively addressed any my issues and this is the main reason for visiting the chiropractor. I was going to ask about my heel too.

I still have not figured out the hip dropping or not. But I did go to the chiro today (first time). It a very interesting experience. She looked at me and then did some light massage and a few manipulations. She told me I was not that bad and a couple of treatments and stretching on my own should set me straight (no pun intended). Before the manipulations my left leg was about an inch shorter than the right. Post manipulation they were pretty even. She noticed that the left lower back is super tight along with the left glute and hamstring. And on the right side she found some over developed trap and upper back, as compared to the left side. This was creating a higher right hip and right shoulder and making me cock my head a little. She thinks my posture is the main culprit in this. So my first plan of action is going to be to get stretching and work on my posture. Then come back to things on the bike. Does that sound reasonable?

I can well understand why you are struggling. A lot of modern thinking about rider positioning concentrates on the proportional aspect of the rider. The general message is that a position on a bicycle is a product of a person's measurements. My practical experience is that this approach with its' veneer of pseudo - scientific method is so wildly inaccurate as to be laughable. A riders' body measurements are not unimportant, but they are the least important aspect to consider in the task of positioning. Much more important is the state of structural health and the individual techniques and idiosyncrasies of function that a given rider brings to the task of propelling a bicycle.

Hi, I'm a 22 yea-old male triathlete who has recently (last 9 months) began to take endurance training seriously. During base periods I'll train up to 15 hours per week. My question concerns some discomfort I've felt when cycling. I've read a lot of articles about knee pain, especially where the pain is located in front or to the side of the knee. In my situation I feel pain behind my right knee, usually after a longer ride (3-5hrs). I'm not sure if it is related, but my right calf begins to cramp up quicker than my left at high intensity. Any comments on what might be causing this? Any suggestions on how I can alleviate this problem? Other than when riding my bike, my knee doesn't bother me.

Glad to be of help. If you have significantly varus forefeet as you have been told, it is very likely to be the reason or at least a major contributing factor, to your knee pain.As to seat setback; your seat should be far enough back so that you can support the majority of your weight without hands while riding in the drops. If you can do this with ease, you are probably too far back. Teetering a bit is good, ideally you want to be on the point of balance. Too far forward and you will not be able to support yourself without hands. If too far back, transferring your weight forward when sprinting off the seat becomes ponderous. Too far forward and the upper body has to bear more weight. This means that the torso musculature involved in respiration has to be tied up bearing weight or stabilising at some cost to respiratory efficiency. Unfortunately there is no quick and simple formula to determine this.Once you have got the seat right, there may need to be changes to bar position. Ideally you need to able to reach the top, brake hoods and drops with ease. Don't forget to check the cleat positioning posts from July 26.

Hey guys - saw the "post-ride knee pain" in Q/A form and fitness and was surprised you didn't mention the importance of rehab and strengthening of the muscles surrounding the knee. Patellofemoral pain syndrome (or, if further advanced) chondromalacia was alluded to in your response which is great, but she needs to set up a treatment regimen with a doctor to get full recovery. I know this because I have this common knee condition, with the same presentation of pain. Left untreated, an enthusiastic fitness person will keep going with this type of knee pain, leading to irreversible damage. Not good. A little patience with one's self can give you years of happy knees. Don't forget to mention the importance of letting the knee rest, not simply just tweaking a saddle height here, fore/ aft position there, allowing yourself a sense of security in pressing through pain. In this condition, pain is BAD and means damage is occurring. Correcting some of the contributing factors you mention in the reply are excellent, but she has to let it heal and strengthen the muscles supporting the knee, along with what we all know about - R.I.C.E. As always, thank you guys for the functional perspective and advice!

I use Time shoes and always always always remove the foam insert after every ride and put in full size cedar shoe trees (not plastic). With all the moisture and salt, shoes can shrink and get stiff and rub on your little toe. Shoe trees take away the moisture and help the shoes last a long time. I also have a shoe stretcher than I substitute for the shoe tree after every other ride on my bigger right foot (or the toe problem returns). I stretch the width, basically customizing the shoe. In this way, I don't have to have an oversized length to handle the width. It works. Try it.

Thank you for your reply. You are correct I should have said that my cleats were as far in as possible to make my shoe as far out as possible, a momentary mental lapse. Yes I am an American and no I have not heard of Keywin pedals. I will look into them, thanks for the advice. I don't believe that I need radical toe positioning but I am concerned about the float. I wear size 14 shoes (50 or so European depending on the manufacturer) and even riding a 63 cm Merckx Ti AX frame with my cleats positioned as far in as possible my heels barely clear the chainstays.

I am a 28 yr old cat 3 road racer. I seem to have been fighting my position over the last couple of years. I've tried orthotics and a chiropractor(he thinks my back is a bit crooked but not unusual or severe enough to cause foot and knee pain) but still the problem is there. When I pedal my hips feel crooked on my saddle. My left foot points in and my right foot points out (from floating pedals) and my left knee moves in near the frame and my right moves out. I am convinced that my hips have gradually become crooked over time due to a lack of ab strength and an overly tight hamstring and hip muscles in my left leg. I have always had a problem with muscle tightness, especially in my left leg. I have a little back pain in the middle of my back but the chiropractor says it's just strained from lifting in the gym.

I am an extremely experienced athlete with a strong background in cycling, running, weightlifting and swimming since I was 13. I have never had a problem with my cycling position until I turned 26. I rode for 6 yrs without problems with a lot of mileage but had no problems. Since I've quit lifting so much and only lift in the winter, I feel the problem has worsened. I've been doing a lot of stretching in the past month and it has helped but not cured anything. I did that ab test in bicycling magazine and it was awful so I have only been working on my abs for 3 days now. The problem also seems to be better when I ride my MTB and on Sat or Sun morning. What gives? Please help.

The bottom line is that if you solve your problems off the bike, you will go a long way towards solving them on the bike. The question you need to find someone who can answer for you, is why you have this pattern of left sided tightness. I can make a number of guesses but that is all they would be. You mention that you have had problems with muscle tightness, particularly on the left for some time. With this background, it is likely that you had issues before you were 26 but that they hadn't bitten you yet.