Fitness questions and answers for September 2, 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 always interested in angle of hip closure, which I see as one of the delicate balances that you have to manage if you’re trying to optimize your power to aerodynamics. I know that the bar to saddle drop is going to come into play on road bike and time trial bike when you are trying to get the most out of your position, but are the hamstrings where you being to loose the power with a more aggressive position? Can the aggressive position, too much hip angle closure, be adapted to by spending more time in the drops and/or more time stretching those muscles to allow them to function at greater extremes?

I’ll try to clarify that for you. It’s a question that comes up a lot and something every cyclist is after. Few people loose a ton of power when you make changes to a position, but almost all people loose some power when changing a position. That’s a matter of training adaptation and efficiency. It’s determining, in your case, what is the most aerodynamic position that you can attain because of its tremendous advantages - over 70% (conservatively speaking) of the power you’re producing on the bike goes to overcome air resistance - then taking that position and measuring the power output relative to your ‘baseline’, or regular position. With positional changes, you’ll see power output changes. It’s the process of teaching your body to adapt and perform in that position that is the other important part of the equation. The process is basically three steps:

What are your thoughts on training on the bike, presumably only spinning, with light (<1kg) weight attached to each ankle? I'm thinking of the boxers and fighters practice of sparring with overweight gloves so that come competition time, their hands would be moving much faster. Does this sound feasible? Or could the extra stress potentially damage the connective tissues, therefore doing more harm than good?

It's highly unlikely that adding weights will improve your cycling as opposed to just cycling harder. Why not just cycle harder (i.e. generate more power) and at the same time also develop the skills required to ride a bike at higher velocities. Obviously, to travel at the same velocity uphill (under the same conditions) with ankle weights compared to without ankle weights will require more power to be generated, which would lead to greater fitness, but this could be achieved simply by riding harder. If you were to travel at a slower velocity with weights (compared to without weights) then you'd not necessarily be generating greater power output.

I'm a 21 year old male, 5'9" and around about 155lbs at race weight. I'm currently a 3 around half way towards gathering all of my points to upgrade to the 2s. I train anywhere between 10 and 20 hours a week depending on the time of year. My questions pertains to a phenomenon I've noticed since I first started cycling around 14 years of age, although it's lessened over the past couple of years. I find that some nights, after a full meal for dinner and consistent, clean eating throughout the day, I'm still ravenously hungry. It starts out with a piece of fruit and perhaps a rice cake an hour after dinner although it may degenerate into peanut butter sandwiches or even bowls of cereal. I can eat and eat and eat and feel that my stomach is full but still feel hungry, as if I could eat a second dinner if I wanted to. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of riding I've done during the day. It's happened when I've had hard intervals and it's happened when I've done nothing but a short recovery ride. I haven't really noticed a pattern in terms of foods eaten prior, either; that is, it doesn't only happen after I eat certain things for dinner or the day of.

Utilizing the seams in my cycling shorts, I estimate that my seat slides about one and a half inches to the left. In the past I have felt that I was (for lack of better term) leaning to my left but was able to compensate for it. For example, last year I participated in TTs averaging 25 mph. However, this year if I approach 19 mph I feel so uncomfortable that I cannot maintain the aero position and change to the upright position. Some more background...

If I jump on another bike I still have the sensation that I am leaning to my left which makes me believe the problem is biomechanical or something wrong with my overall sense of balance. Just to be sure I had my bike tested to see if it was straight and it passed with flying colours. I had my chiropractor x-ray my legs to see if there was a length differential. No difference was noted. Regardless I put shims on my left Look cleat that measures about 2mm in thickness hoping it might help. I noticed no difference. When I tested my leg strength on a power meter (one leg spinning) my left leg proved slightly stronger than the right.

Steve may want to answer as well, but your question seems to have more to do with physiology and psychology than with physics. Two riders of identical dimensions on bikes of identical weight and dimensions would most likely feel that they had done different amounts of work climbing the same hill at the same speed because human bodies do not have a way to measure absolute effort or work. What we can do is feel how hard we are working compared to our own abilities or limits. If your two seemingly identical riders have different power at lactate threshold, one rider will be closer to the threshold than the other when making the same effort, and that's something they can feel. Riders producing a few watts above threshold power feel that they are working pretty hard. Riders who are making the same power but are riding 20 or 30 watts below their own personal higher threshold feel that they are cruising with moderate effort. Does that answer the question you meant to be asking?

I agree with Scott, if that's the question you're asking. I think what you mean based on re reading the answer I gave to the gent regarding crank length, is that you think my answer contravenes the laws of physics, which it doesn't. I'd better qualify what I'm about to say by explaining that I'm not an exercise scientist, while Scott and a number of the panellists are, and I would defer to their views in this matter. You're implicitly focusing on the metabolic cost of the rider, whereas the system we're talking about (and I assume, though you don't specify, that the difference in crank length is the sticking point that is concerning you) is comprised of a rider plus bike with the variable being crank length.

There are two hormones that are important in diagnosing hypothyroidism. TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone tells your thyroid gland to make more T4. T4 is the hormone that up-regulates your metabolism. It is standard but somewhat misguided procedure to diagnose people with high TSH as hypothyroid. In the general population, TSH is high when the thyroid gland is not responding normally to TSH by producing normal amounts of T4. The gland is said to be "failing". I call this sort of diagnosis somewhat misguided because highly trained endurance athletes often present with high TSH and normal T4, also called "subclinical hypothyroidism.