Fitness questions and answers for September 16, 2008

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.

I'm 14 years old and have just fallen in love with cycling - to help with other sports I play. Right now everything seems a little overwhelming; types of rides, cadence, distance and training... It's all a little over my head right now. I ride on a regular basis - about 24 miles every two or three days. What does a cyclist my age need to know and what type of 'training' or riding should I be doing to be a better rider? I would eventually like to compete. Tips for riding or nutrition?

I'm glad you've discovered the joys of cycling. Since you're 14 and your main goal is build fitness for other sports, you really don't need much advice. Ride the bike exactly as much as you enjoy riding it. Don't push yourself to ride unless you feel pretty energetic and ready to ride. Make a point of eating and drinking on your rides. You can survive a 24 mile ride without food or drink, but you'll feel better and go faster if you have a couple of bottles of water or exercise drink and a bagel, a banana or a few fig bars while you ride.

I am 62 and this is my first year on a road bike. For the past 12 years or so I have been riding a mountain bike, but I wanted to enhance my biking experiences, so I bought a top flight and well-fitted road bike. However, 1,500 miles or so later, I thought I should ask about hand positioning, since my hands and wrists are killing me. This has never been a problem for me in the past, and I just never seem to be able to get comfortable.

If you weren't bearing significant weight on your hands and wrists, they wouldn't be hurting. The key to this is seat position, though handlebar and cleat position are also important. What you need to do is have your seat the minimum distance behind the bottom bracket that allows you to largely unweight your upper body. Even if the seat is where it needs to be, poor cleat position or handlebars that are too low or too far out will compromise your ability to ride comfortably. If you have a look in the Cyclingnews fitness archives from the second half of 2004 there should be quite a bit of info that will help you.

I am a Cat. 2 racer, participating primarily in crits, with a sprinkling of road races when they are available and convenient. I am 5'10" tall but am more torso than leg, and thus have proportionately short legs. After quite a bit of research and twiddling my thumbs, I have decided to switch from 172.5 mm cranks (which I have been riding since I took to the bike simply because they came in my first gruppo) to 170mm. I was wondering if after making the shift I should compensate directly by raising my saddle height the exact difference of the disparity, or if there is some sort of derived formula used to accont for the change.

No, no formula. Raise your seat the 2.5 mm and if possible, raise the bars by the same amount. Raising both seat and bar that amount will move them back less than 1mm. That's a negligible change and you should adapt to it quickly, if you notice it at all. I understand your predicament and long-torsoed riders who bend well and also have good ability to extend their spines often have to ride shortish cranks to prevent their upper thighs contacting their rib cages when they ride with hands in the drops.

I'm a 33 year old male that averages 20-21 mph on rolling 80-mile group rides on the weekends. Over the summer on these long rides, I've started developing headaches between three and five hours after I finish riding for the day. The temperatures are easily in the high 80s to low 90s here in North Carolina with very high humidity, so I'm wondering if these headaches are most likely caused by dehydration. I'm averaging a minimum of a bottle an hour of Gatorade or Cytomax and usually come home weighing about 3-4 pounds lighter. The headaches start like clockwork after long rides, but usually never on a ride shorter than 30 miles. Are the headaches caused by heat, dehydration, or mineral imbalances? What's the best way to prevent them?

It sounds very likely that your headaches are due to dehydration and/or electrolyte issues. You could get a bunch of expensive medical tests to rule out other scarier possibilites, or just try drinking more on your next few long rides. Ideally you'd drink enough that you finish your rides weighing about a pound less than when you start. Note that actually gaining water weight on a ride is dangerous, so you don't want to just drink 'more'.

My wife checked my blood pressure and it was high. Of course I went to the hospital and was admitted. I'm 38, probably in the best shape of my life, or so I thought. My resting heart rate was 47 bpm last year. I never had any trouble before. After two days in the hospital, they said I had a great heart - no blockages - although they did find the enzyme in my blood that is produced during a heart attack but there was no damage to my heart.

I also found that my resting heart rate is now in the 30s. The nurses kept waking me up every time I went to sleep because of it. The only thing is I didn't get an answer as to what happened. Did I have a major bonk, or what? Did I not fuel right before my ride? Did I not allow enough recovery time in between sprints? I can't be having heart trouble, my family has no history of it. Now I'm afraid to ride hard, although I have rode a few times since, just at a lot slower pace. I plan on scheduling an appointment with my regular doctor and hopefully I can get referred to a specialist to find out what is wrong.