Fitness questions and answers for July 17
Got a question about fitness, training, recovery from injury or a related subject? Drop us a line at...
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.
Dave Palese (www.davepalese.com) is a USA Cycling licensed coach and masters' class road racer with 16 years' race experience. He coaches racers and riders of all abilities from his home in southern Maine, USA, where he lives with his wife Sheryl, daughter Molly, and two cats, Miranda and Mu-Mu.
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.
Eddie Monnier (www.velo-fit.com) is a USA Cycling certified Elite Coach and a Category II racer. He holds undergraduate degrees in anthropology (with departmental honors) and philosophy from Emory University and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business.
Eddie is a proponent of training with power. He coaches cyclists (track, road and mountain bike) of all abilities and with wide ranging goals (with and without power meters). He uses internet tools to coach riders from any geography.
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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.
Current riders that Steve has positioned include Davitamon-Lotto's Nick Gates, Discovery's Hayden Roulston, National Road Series champion, Jessica Ridder and National and State Time Trial champion, Peter Milostic.
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.
Pam was an All-American in track while at the UW. She started cycling competitively in 2003 and is the defending Missouri State Road Champion. Pam writes a nutrition column for Giana Roberge's Team Speed Queen Newsletter.
Dario Fredrick (www.wholeathlete.com) is an exercise physiologist and head coach for Whole Athlete™. He is a former category 1 & semi-pro MTB racer. Dario holds a masters degree in exercise science and a bachelors in sport psychology.
Scott Saifer (www.wenzelcoaching.com) has a Masters Degree in exercise physiology and sports psychology and has personally coached over 300 athletes of all levels in his 10 years of coaching with Wenzel Coaching.
Kendra Wenzel (www.wenzelcoaching.com) is a head coach with Wenzel Coaching with 17 years of racing and coaching experience and is coauthor of the book Bike Racing 101.
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.
Through his highly customized online training format, Steve and his handpicked team of coaches at Colorado Premier Training work with cyclists and multisport athletes around the world.
Brett Aitken (www.cycle2max.com) is a Sydney Olympic gold medalist. Born in Adelaide, Australia in 1971, Brett got into cycling through the cult sport of cycle speedway before crossing over into road and track racing. Since winning Olympic gold in the Madison with Scott McGrory, Brett has been working on his coaching business and his www.cycle2max.com website.
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.cyclecoach.com) is an Associate Coach with Richard Stern Training. He holds a Masters degree in exercise physiology and is USA Cycling Expert Coach. Michael has been a competitive cyclist for over 10 years and has experience coaching road and off-road cyclists, triathletes and Paralympians.
Kim Morrow (www.elitefitcoach.com) has competed as a Professional Cyclist and Triathlete, is a certified USA Cycling Elite Coach, a 4-time U.S. Masters National Road Race Champion, and a Fitness Professional.
Her coaching group, eliteFITcoach, is based out of the Southeastern United States, although they coach athletes across North America. Kim also owns MyEnduranceCoach.com, a resource for cyclists, multisport athletes & endurance coaches around the globe, specializing in helping cycling and multisport athletes find a coach.
How do dopers evade?
Optimal race weight
MTB Cleat Set Up
Low max HR
Pain behind knee
Perineum pain
Riding in polluted environments
How do dopers evade?
I have a question I'm sure you get a lot, but I never see the answer.
How do you dope on the professional level of cycling and not get caught? Are they taking levels of growth hormones, EPO, testerone and reintroducing their own blood at lower does than the tests can detect? How do they do it? Somebody must know how because it is happening. Example: Ulrich is alleged to have doped in the Giro this year, but he won a stage and the tests showed no signs of doping?
John M. Spidaliere
Termoli
Scott Saifer replies:
Optimal race weight #1
I am a 5'10" 160lb Cat 3 / Expert Mtb racer. In these two articles (www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=2006/letters07-03, www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=2006/letters07-10) you address race weight for specific examples, but I'm interested in understanding optimal race weights across various rider heights. My strengths are long and hard road and mountain bike races. I enjoy breakaways, time trials, and short power climbs. I'm not a pure climber but can usually be found dangling with the leaders on the big finesse grinders. I can mix it up in the sprints but usually don't win a whole lot of them. In general, regardless of crit, road race, or mountain bike race, I can be found in the top 1/4 percentile of my categories, rarely on the podium. I am wondering if I need to be more diligent about my diet and shedding more weight, or if I need to continue to put more emphasis on training. Or both.
Ryan Bennet
San Francisco
Ric Stern replies:
Ryan responded:
Thank you for the explanation, this is useful. Your response begs the question: what would an optimal body fat percentage be for a guy like me in my racing categories? It is not very easy for me at my weight right now to lose incremental pounds, but I do know that I have some added 'fluff' that could go away with a very concerted effort. Is it better for me to focus on shedding fat or building power? I get the sense it's the latter.
Ric Stern replies:
Scott Saifer replies:
Optimal race weight #2
I'm 29 and an intermediate cyclist who might like to race at some point in the future. I've seen several posts on "target" weights for different size people, but none are really close to my size. Is there a general formula to estimate a target weight? Do these include bone structure/chest size etc? I know I have some weight to lose but am unsure how much to aim for.
I'm currently 6'3.5" and around 198 lbs. Inseam as measured without shoes for bike fit is 36.5". Chest size is around 41".
Brian Bradford
Scott Saifer replies:
Good luck.
MTB Cleat Set Up
I have my road cleats set up as advised on the cyclingnews posts. For my mountain shoes, however, the cleats are hard to set back. The shoes are Sidi Dominators, with cleats for Crank Brother Candy pedals. The cleats just won't move back far enough to put the ball of my foot back a smidgen over the spindle. Is this a cleat issue, a shoe issue, or an adjustment issue?
Mark Featherman
Steve Hogg replies:
Low max HR
I am a 45 year old male who does triathlon and has been doing so since 1989 doing mostly long distance events in the last 20 years. My maximum heart rate these days seems to be around the 160 mark. Does this seem unusually low to you for a 45 year old? I have training partners that regularly hit the 170's when training. I think I'd be dead if I ever got to that! Any opinion would be appreciated.
Peter Clifford
Scott Saifer replies:
Pain behind knee
Hi, I am experiencing some pain behind my right knee where my calf muscle meets the hamstring towards the left side of the back of the knee. It hurts right at the bottom of the pedal stroke and I can feel it about half an hour into a ride. I am a 15 yr old male and race on the weekends. I have Shimano SPD-SL pedals. Could you please give me some advice to get rid of the pain? (moving cleats, saddle height, etc.) Also, I find that at the end of a hard ride, my quads (in particular the muscle just above the knee, to the inside of the leg) gets really sore and my hamstrings and other leg muscles don't feel fatigued at all.
Thanks.
Tim Tattersall
Brisbane
Steve Hogg replies:
Perineum pain
I am a 46 year old male, 70Kg. Raced 20 years ago and returned to cycling for health and pleasure 12 months ago. I have a let of set back on my bike, which is my preferred arrangement, and I 'ankle' a lot so seat height is lower rather than higher. However, to achieve sufficient set back (I use a FSA seat post with maximum set back) my previous seat was set a long way back. Due to where I sit, this broke the rails on the saddle through use, though it was very comfortable (before it broke). I now have a Selle Italia Filante, which was recommended on the basis of its long rails so that I could get close to a decent set back. (I purchased my current bike second hand and its seat tube is too steep for me so it is all compromise.)
I am now experiencing significant perineum pain on one side which is constant. I am experimenting with having the saddle lower, level, pointing up slightly, and so on. I have also read what I could find in the forums here (thank you). I will probably need to purchase a new seat, and what I would like to ask is, if possible, what sorts of qualities in my position and in saddle design that contribute to not sitting on my sit bones? I realise this is different for every person, but what I am wondering if there are general rules of thumb that can be used, such as (as an example) that if have perineum pain then my weight is too far forward so things that make you sit back (back more on the saddle, higher on the bike, tilting the seat up?) would help alleviate such problems?
Adrian Miles
Steve Hogg replies:
Riding in polluted environments
I really enjoy the column and often find there is excellent information in questions that I would not think relate to my circumstances.
I am a Cat 4 rider who trains 6-12 hours per week, with time dependent on work and family commitments. A lot of my training is based around commuting to/from work, especially when the light allows more time to do longer rides on the way home. I am currently living in Paris where the residents are very considerate to bike riders and the air is pretty clean.
In a couple of weeks I am moving to Shanghai. One of the by-products of China's growth is heavy pollution, with Shanghai having 3-5 days per month where the sky can be seen instead of the grey haze. In addition, the vehicles there do not appear to be as concerned with regular maintenance and add there fair share to the pollution. I am keen to keep cycling when I move but have some concerns that it may do more harm than good.
As a multi-threaded question;
What is the short and long term effect of exercising in polluted environments?
Does the type of exercise make any difference (i.e. high versus low intensity or cycling versus swimming)
Is there any way to counter the effects of smog/pollution? I.e. cycling on the turbo inside a room with a good a/c system or other any ideas you can offer or just cycling on weekends when out of the city?
Do the face masks that some cycle couriers wear work and if so are there any particular type you should use?
Thanks for any thoughts you can offer,
Paul Toohey
Cyclingnews tech editor John Stevenson replies:
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