Fitness questions and answers for November 14, 2006

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 have been racing for thirty five years. In my early years I won nation and oceanic titles, but now as a 49 year old master I still don't know what is really happening to my legs. At 49 years old I weigh 68kgs and am 170cm tall - I ride 172.5mm crank length on the road, and on the track 165's. As a 19 year old I used 170mm for the road and 165mm on the track, and I weighed 67kgs. I always have a high cadence usually one cog less than every one in the bunch. I set every new bike up from scratch so I don't transfer over the old bad habits.

For me this still occurs so is it genetic or a chemical imbalance? Nowadays when I have a few days off the bike I make the first one a slow to medium ride - that's off the big ring. I average about 30 km/h for about 3.5 hours (100kms) at varying heart rates - isn't this how we should train!? But what is going on in our bodies - muscles tearing apart? Lactic buildup? Genetics? Chemical imbalance? Incorrect set up with bike position?

In recent years I have been diagnosed with a depressive disorder and as a result I take SSRI's [Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors]. These are not the best as they slow down my reaction times which in turn slows me down, making it harder to race. I have noticed that the SSRI's appear to eliminate a large amount of the muscle crampy soreness. I continue to up the ante and race hard - I still race elite races at an Australian national level, B/C grade. Over the years bikes and positions have changed, as have shoes, pedals and seats - I can eliminate these as a problem. Training methods have changed - big gears, little gears, recommended time on the bike, recovery times and so on. Can anyone explain what is happening to us once we eliminate these variants?

I am a masters road racer in the northeast of the US. To support my needed training time on the bike, I often teach a spin class. While I have been fortunate enough to sell my classes on periodization (thus having to do what I do come November-April), I often find my heart rate jumping higher and getting out of breath while having to talk while under effort. After a few words, what was once a zone 2 turns to 3 or 4.

I have been riding 15 years, have been told my flexibility is way above average, have never really had on-the-bike problems and thus I have suffered little biomechanical problems on the bike save for shimming my left cleat due to a 6mm left leg being shorter than the right. I ride Sidi shoes (I have narrow feet, size 45) and Look (red cleat) pedals. The ball joint on both shoes/cleats has been about 5mm forward of the axle crank center.

After years of wondering, I recently decided (trying to get to your 10mm suggestion) to just shove the red cleats back as far as they could go on the Sidi shoes, to test your theories. On the first and ensuing ride after doing this, I was in heaven, feeling a more powerful plant on the pedals, feeling even more better in posture (something I couldn't believe), and not noticing any toe pointing in and/or out.

My question is this: when a person begins moving the cleats of any shoe back to lengths you suggest in your articles, what should we be doing with the seat height and seat front/back position? For example, I changed nothing else on the bike when I slid the red cleats all the way back (keeping their same position for everything else). I have noticed over the weeks some soreness in my right (longer leg) frontal knee area (almost like a meniscus soreness), but nothing that my flexibility and comfort while on the bike can't overcome and/or just ignore.

We all want to have an effective position on a bike and there is a lot of often conflicting advice available regarding this. So let's start with basics and define a couple of terms. There are 2 basic philosophical approaches that can be taken to rider positioning; reductionist or holistic. A reductionist approach tends to focus on one aspect of the body. It might be a strict biomechanical approach based on statistical norms or it may be formula driven and based on mathematical formulae. Sometimes a mix of both is used.

I was wondering if the recommendations for cleat positioning or saddle fore/aft position are any different for a mountain bike than a road bike Originally, when I got my mountain bike, the shop set me up with the saddle farther forward than I have on my road bike and told me that it should be different than a road bike. But I wasn't comfortable so I gradually changed my position back to what I had on my road bike and then everything felt fine. So, is there any reason that a mountain bike position should be different? Should I just get used to the position?

For maximal power and comfort on the flat, the mountain bike should be set up similarly to the road bike in terms of cleat position, saddle height and setback. If you are using your mountain bike for cross training for the road season, making the fits match is probably your best bet. The difference between the road and mountain bike is that on the mountain bike, bike handling can be as high a priority as power and comfort.

I'm a 32 year old male cyclist. 11 weeks ago I was injured in a collision with a car. My doctors have advised that I can start riding again in a week's time, but eager to get back out on the road, I did a 20km criterium today. First time on the bike and first race of the season in one go. While happy that I was able to finish without too much discomfort, I think that I have lost a lot of muscle/ strength in my legs and nearly all of my fitness. My weight has dropped around 2kg in this time. I finished last and rode at an average speed 5km/h slower than previous times and with my heart rate close to max the whole time.

Prior to the accident on weekdays I was doing 1hour in the mornings and 1hour at night on the indoor trainer and sometimes 1hour 45minutes at night to catch up on missed sessions, combined with a 3 hour ride on a Saturday, with no hills and the same with hills on a Sunday. I did this for 6 months over winter. Also with some swimming at lunch time and running in the mornings when away on business trips and holidays (1hr run). So min of 16hrs a week cycling.

Now I'm at the point where I'm not really sure where I should restart my training. Should I start with intervals/AT to build back the muscle. Or do I start over again on the base work. Will my fitness and strength come back quickly or is going to be slow process. I had always subscribed to the theory that if you had a week off training it took 2 weeks to get the fitness back. If this is true will it take me 22 weeks (6 months) to get the fitness back?

As you read this, try to be glad that you survived the collision and are able to ride again. Unless you've been doing some aerobic work while off the bike, you are back to square-one on training and fitness. Your ratio of two weeks training for each week off is about right, but fortunately it only applies to shorter times off, up to a few weeks, otherwise guys who start to train in the 40s could never get fit.

Until recently I had been using a 170mm crank length, then I purchased my new bike which has 172.5mm. Apart from the obvious changes in geometry going from one manufacture to another, I noticed that the longer crank felt very strange and reduced my explosive power. But this was offset by the fact that I moved to a stiffer frame. So in summary, I actually have not lost nor gained from buying a new bike, just feel a little strange. Wanting to know more about crank length, I stumbled across this formula. My inside leg is 80cm and my height is 178cm, if you crunch those numbers the answer comes out as 165mm crank length. This might be for a track crank I am not sure.

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