Fitness questions and answers for May 3, 2004

Form & Fitness Q & A

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.

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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 23 years old, 182cm and weigh 75kg fairly consistently. I am training at the moment for longer distances (100km and 200km) before getting more into track and criterium work. I am watching my food but am not 100% what specifically I should be watching. I feel that if I lost more weight and increased power then this would help me in all facets of the sport. Can you please tell me what I should be eating to decrease weight while maintaining my energy levels for training and racing.

You are correct when you say that cycling performance is affected by the ratio of power to body weight. Power is generated by our leg muscles and therefore, one's power output is proportional to their muscle mass. In its simplest terms, the power to weight ratio is the ratio of our muscle mass to our body weight. So naturally the same muscle power will move less weight easier, therefore faster. The tricky part, however, is lowering the weight without losing the muscle power. It's what they call a conundrum, so the even trickier part is not losing your mind in the process.

In addition to Pam's advice, I would add that given your apparent focus on criteriums and track, weight becomes even less important. That is because on anything less than a moderate grade, most of the power you generate goes to overcoming aerodynamic drag (i.e., based on your effective frontal area), not weight. One area where lower body fat would help would be standing starts on the track (e.g, the kilo). However, as Pam pointed out your BMI seems very reasonable, so I would focus on developing a dietary approach that maximizes your ability to train and recover. Then, in the off and early season, you can focus on shedding any excess fat without needing to worry about negatively impacting your ability to recover from hard training.

In this year's races things have been quite different with hard accelerations and major breaks that go-the-distance sometimes forming after only 1-2 miles. In my initial race of the season the first time we hit a major hill hard on lap #1 my legs felt trashed halfway up. Although leading the group into the hill I ended up last to the top. Fortunately, things improved as the race wore on and by the 3rd and 4th laps I was able to lead the group over the top maintaining my position and going hard enough to drop a number of racers in our group. This past week a similar event occurred only I missed the break of the day which occurred on a short but relatively steep hill. Again, later on in the race I found myself able to go quite hard on the hills leading a chase that eventually allowed my group to bridge with some of the stragglers from the earlier break.

Hills have typically been my strength and I have done plenty of climbing workouts this year. These workouts are typically based upon my doing a series of 9-12 hard climbs of varying lengths (.5 - 2 km; I live in Minnesota and that's about the maximum length climb to which I have access) with an approximately equal intensity from the start to the end of the climb. The problem I am experiencing appears to primarily occur when hard accelerations and/or hills appear early in a race but I admit it might also lie with the intensity of the accelerations and the fact that I am more of a power climber than someone who can put in hard, short accelerations. Based upon your response to the mountain biker, I have begun to incorporate shorter, high intensity intervals into one of my workouts each week as suggested in your response. My first question is as follows:

I also wonder, however, if at least part of the problem isn't a result of my not warming up properly. My current warm-up routine is not nearly as structured as the one you provide but includes approximately 30 minutes of warm-up with the intensity increasing gradually over the time period and 3-4 short (i.e., 15-30 seconds) high intensity sprints. Unfortunately, giving the nature of our racing here, I often find myself standing around for 15-20 minutes or more after I have completed my warm-up between the time that the first groups start and my group goes out. Bringing along a trainer may help in some situations, but oftentimes, I'm parked a sufficient distance away from the start that this situation is not going to work unless I take the chance of leaving my trainer out by the start for the duration of the race.

Yes, the warm up recommended applies to any fast start race, even if the overall race distance is greater. The importance of a proper warm up is not only to warm up the blood, but to bring the high-end muscle fiber and energy pathways "on-line." Have everything else you need ready for you to race when you begin your warm up, so that you can minimize the time between the end of your warm up and the race start. There is not much you can do about delays in sending you off when you're already lined up with your group to race, but as you roll out, you can also spin at a high cadence to keep the legs warm without prematurely fatiguing.

I have read about accepted practices for warming up before a race, but there is one crucial detail I am lacking: how long before the start of the race do you stop the warmup? Particularly when the race is a time trial, how much or little time do you leave between the end of a warm up and the start of the race? And, as a related question, how long once I have started the time trial should it take for my heart rate to reach my target heart rate for the race?

Ideally, you should finish your warm up as close to the start of the race as possible. As I mentioned in my previous response (4/26) regarding warm up, while an effective warm up is one which includes brief efforts recruiting the highest force muscle fiber (10-20 sec supra-threshold), the end of a warm up session should in essence be a spin-down recovery from those efforts. The legs should feel warm and "open," but not fatigued. Having everything else ready for you to race before hand (equipment, race number, food, bottles, etc.), will reduce the time you'll need between finishing your warm up and your race start. If outside temperatures are cool, after you finish your warm up, keep extra clothes on until the last possible moment to stay warm, particularly the legs.

I'm a cat 3/40+ road racer and I have a question regarding hydration and the obverse, urination...my issue is this- after evening training rides especially, I hydrate of course. I am particularly attuned to hydration due to a bout with dehydration last summer when I had to take a couple liters intravenously...not good. The problem with this evening hydration is that I have to wake and pee like 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night. Is my body not really needing the fluids I take in? Also, it's not like I'm drinking gallons and gallons of H2o...I'd say maybe 20 or 30 oz.. I was told at a physical late last year that I could use some more sodium in my diet...is there a relationship here? Sodium being connected to the retention of fluids...If so, is there such a thing as a sodium pill to take before or after workouts? Thanks for reading!

You are wise to pay attention to rehydration after a training ride since most athletes do not consume enough fluids during their workout to replenish the fluid lost in sweat and respiratory losses. In general, you should consume 24 ounces of fluid for every pound of weight lost during an exercise session. So the amount of water that you are drinking is certainly not excessive. It is recommended that you consume more fluid than was actually lost because of the phenomenon that you are experiencing, which is called "obligatory urine losses". When you consume a large volume of water within a short period of time, it can alter the concentration of sodium and other electrolytes in your blood. Your kidneys are designed to keep the concentration of the blood constant, so they respond by excreting the "extra" water. As a result, you have to get up three to four times to urinate every night.

I am a 21 year-old male, 5'11", about 155lbs. I've been racing for about two years, both in sprint triathalons and as a Cat. 4 road racer. I consider myself fairly in shape, I train about 8-10 hours a week on the bike, with another 2-3 hours of running or swimming. It seems to me, from reading fitness articles and speaking to other riders, that I have an unusually high maximum heart rate. If I'm on a difficult climb in a racing situation (or when i'm about to get dropped by the group), my heart rate will easily be over 190, and i've seen it go over 200 before as well. I haven't ever done any specific training to try to lower it, i just assumed that it would start to go down on its own. My questions are, will my maximum heart rate start to decline, and if so, why hasn't it already? Also, is such a high max heart rate a problem? When I'm about to get dropped by the group in a race, and my heart is at 190 bpm, I always assumed I was struggling because I wasn't fit enough. Is it actually the other way around?

I would like to have a glass of wine with dinner but I am concerned about the effects it would have on my cycling development. I am aware of the effects of alcohol on muscle mass, recovery and other aspects of athletic performance, but I am not sure of the quantities that must be consumed before the effects are significant. Generally I cycle every other day so should I avoid alcohol the on days I workout and enjoy a glass of wine on my off days?

You have no reason to be concerned about a glass of wine with dinner. The amount of alcohol in one glass of wine will not negatively affect your training or performance. The second part of your question relates to the timing of when you drink relative to your training rides. Since you are only drinking one glass of wine and are drinking it at dinner, which is presumably after you ride, there is no reason to avoid alcohol on your workout days. On the days you ride, I would recommend that you eat 70-100 g of carbohydrate within 30 minutes after you are off the bike to replenish your glycogen stores. Follow that up with a nice dinner and a glass of wine.

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