1600 Club

Hey, Brad. Can I join your club?

Glad I Own a Trainer

Fibular head pain

Being injured is such torture. Even more so when you don't really no what the cause is.

This sounds like it could be tendinitis of the biceps femoris or
popliteus, from looking through Andy Pruitt's e-book.  He describes:

SYMPTOMS
Pain on the outer side of the knee about one inch below the middle of
the joint and slightly above the bony protuberance.

CAUSES
* A too-high saddle or riding a fixed-gear (track) bike.

* Bow-legged people often suffer from this problem.

* Pedals with excessive float make the problem worse because the
biceps femoris and popliteal tendons have to work hard to stabilize
the resulting excessive tibial rotation.

TREATMENT
* Apply ice as many as three times a day for 15-20 minutes each time.

* Take a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with food.

*  Lower the saddle about 3 mm.

* Switch to a pedal system with limited or no float.

Kelby Bethards Replies

Anthony,

What you are describing does sound accurate for your problem. I experienced the same thing at one point, never required surgery but the pain and feel of the "need" to rotate my heel back inward was significant and turned out to be what I needed to change.

You have done the trouble shooting this far in stating the differences betwixt the different bikes, so that needs to be rectified.

The bike fit panelists will have a better (than my simple monkey brained approach) answer for the specifics of how to adjust your cleats and so on, but I once read/heard something long long (15 yrs) ago that made sense to me. Sit on a ledge of some sort (small retainer wall, counter top, etc) with your feet dangling. Now let them "hang loose" - how they want to hang, and look at how they are positioned. This is somewhat how they want to be on the bike too. (For example, mine hang toes out a bit and toes down a bit, and this is incidentally how my feet are when I ride) So, if your feet hang so that the toes point out, if you will, that is probably how they will feel best on the bike.

The problem with a lack of rotation in the pedals, as you have noted, is excessive rotational forces inward on the lower leg, this stretches the biceps femoris tendon too much causing tendonitis and tenosynovitis and so on. Not to mention excess wear and tear on the menisci in the knee joint.

So, in my personal experience, the egg beaters do have more rotational options and float abilility...too much for some and too loose for others but they may be the right idea for you. This assumes that the rest of your positioning is good.

Fibular head pain

Being injured is such torture. Even more so when you don't really no what the cause is.

Kelby Bethards Replies

Anthony,

What you are describing does sound accurate for your problem. I experienced the same thing at one point, never required surgery but the pain and feel of the "need" to rotate my heel back inward was significant and turned out to be what I needed to change.

You have done the trouble shooting this far in stating the differences betwixt the different bikes, so that needs to be rectified.

The bike fit panelists will have a better (than my simple monkey brained approach) answer for the specifics of how to adjust your cleats and so on, but I once read/heard something long long (15 yrs) ago that made sense to me. Sit on a ledge of some sort (small retainer wall, counter top, etc) with your feet dangling. Now let them "hang loose" - how they want to hang, and look at how they are positioned. This is somewhat how they want to be on the bike too. (For example, mine hang toes out a bit and toes down a bit, and this is incidentally how my feet are when I ride) So, if your feet hang so that the toes point out, if you will, that is probably how they will feel best on the bike.

The problem with a lack of rotation in the pedals, as you have noted, is excessive rotational forces inward on the lower leg, this stretches the biceps femoris tendon too much causing tendonitis and tenosynovitis and so on. Not to mention excess wear and tear on the menisci in the knee joint.

So, in my personal experience, the egg beaters do have more rotational options and float abilility...too much for some and too loose for others but they may be the right idea for you. This assumes that the rest of your positioning is good.

Shearing Ligaments. Ouch.

Next
bad exercise: straight-legged deadlifts. 
These shear the ligaments at the sacro iliac
joints and provide a crushing shearing action on the
L4/5 and L5 / S1 discs.

Biceps femoris tendinosis

I finally figured out what's wrong with my knee. Seems somehow my left cleat slipped and I was riding a little pigeon toed. Well, after 6.5 hours my bieps femoris said "Screw you, mister".

Excessive tibial internal rotation increases stretch on hamstrings.

Lifts

The Australians sprinters are doing 3 sessions a week for most of the year. They train strength, power, then speed. Sessions are generally 3-4 sets of 3 max lower body lifts. In the stength phase they do 2 strenght and 1 power. 2 power and 1 stregth during the power phase. They do train the upper body but I have excluded that for now. I might in include it later.

One bilateral lift is done for core strength; squat, deadlift, or romanian deadlift. The limiter is lower back as you would expect.
The rest of the lifts are unilateral with the single leg press being the bread and butter. Matching the joint angles of cycling is key but how to do that without video is a mystery. They use the single leg press for power by trying to throw the sled. Single leg squats and deadlifts are the other unilateral lifts. During the speed phase, they do lots of single-leg plyos.

Preperation (8-10 weeks)
  This is the same schedule that will be used in the strength phase but we'll use lighter weights. The intention is to prepare the tendonds, joints, and stabilizing muscles for larger loads.

   3 Sessions (s w fr)

   Squat 5*6reps

   Single Leg Press 5*6reps

   Single Leg Squat 5*6reps

   ----------------------------

   15 sets @ set every 6 minutes == 1.5 hours

Strength
   3 Sessions (s w fr)
   Squat 5*6reps
   Single Leg Press 5*6reps
   Single Leg Squat 5*6reps
   ----------------------------
   15 sets @ set every 6 minutes == 1.5 hours

Power

Speed



Deadlift description and pointers.

Leg Press Foot Position

FOOT PLACEMENT  MAJOR MUSCLE EMPHASIS

1. High Hamstrings; glutes
2. Low Quadriceps
3. Wide Vastus Medialis
4. Close Vastus Lateralis
   
   

Bike Crash

It's gonna happen again. I should prepare for it now...

Thank you, thank you, thank you

 

Track Racing Overview

Find it here.

Messenger Bags

First a little history:

The messenger bag as we know it today, however, originated in the 1950s or thereabouts, being produced as a bag for telephone linemen, by Globe Canvas/De Martini in New York. The linemen needed a bag they could easily access while climbing telephone poles, and this design worked perfectly. New York bicycle messenger companies picked them up sometime in the 1970s, and initially were purchased one color per company, as identifiers of a sort. For a long while, NYC was the bastion of the messenger bag - until things started to spread in the 1980s.

A list of bag manufacturers can be found here.

One Hard Day

TSS : 387 w
IF: .86

I'd say that was a good days work. 

Head Cold Hell

I have a cold for the first time in several years. At first I was worried I would not be able to train but then I found this:

Moderate exercise does not worsen a cold: "MUNCIE, Ind. - Common cold symptoms do not intensify or last longer when a person participates in light to moderate exercise, says a Ball State University study."

Looks like I can get on my bike afterall.

Ausie Cycling

From the Australian National Sprint Cycling Team Stenght Coach:

"Road is just for recovery, to keep them a little bit lean and to keep the sprinters out of the pub and out of trouble. "

That might annoy the physio's and guru's who make money out of Swiss balls and all that stuff, but I tried it for three years in 20 different sports and it didn't make any difference to performance or injury rates. They get really good at balancing on a ball, but there's no Olympic event for that. It doesn't transfer to the sport. Fix their technical problems in the actual technique (soapbox time is now over).

The one thing we do that most coaches can't cop is this. If you don't make the target times or loads on the first effort or set, you warm down and go home. You aren't fresh enough to train at a level that will make you improve. If you do a PB, you warm down and go home.

galerija.jurerobic.net :: RAAM 2004 :: RAAM2004_10593

galerija.jurerobic.net :: RAAM 2004 :: RAAM2004_10593

Forerunner 305

Forerunner 305: "The Forerunner 305"

Your Weight: Think About It

Stella makes some really good points about the nature of putting on weight.

Meme for the day: Sustained Evasion

Read more at www.theatlasphere.com/c...

Tandem cycling

Julia and I are considering doing a bicycle tour of Europe. We're looking into gettting a Tandem bike to help even out the differences in our fitness and cycling experience.

I found some interesting info pponline:

In conclusion, recreational cyclists, specifically the stoker, exhibited lower physiological stress when bicycling on a tandem compared to a single bicycle…In practical terms, when physiological stress was comparable between bicycles, cyclists were able to cycle from 4.8 to 8.0kph faster on a tandem than when they cycled individually on a single bicycle. Apparently, stokers can add to power output without adding a significant amount of wind resistance.

• Stokers demonstrated significantly lower physiological stress cycling on the tandem than on the single bike, with heart rates 16-22% lower and lactic acid levels 23-70% lower over the four velocities

• By contrast, no such differences were observed between trials for the captains

• When riding single bicycles, captains exhibited significantly lower HR, RPE and LA values than stokers

• Cyclists were able to ride from 4.8-8 kph faster on a tandem than a single bike at similar levels of physiological stress.

IMAX Cycling Movie

Showing February 2006 in San Jose.The subject of the film is the amazing ability of the human brain to overcome adversity, accomplish the near-impossible, and power each of us to victory and success in life. The film will illustrate these various abilities by following cyclists racing in the Tour De France.

The film ends as it began, with the home movie of the 6-year-old boy triumphantly riding his two-wheeler on his own. "We fall, we get up, we learn," says the narrator, "Powered by the human brain, there is no end to what we may achieve."

Elite Fitness & Athletic Training

CrossFit Santa Cruz. OMG!

Body Fat

Body Fat: "Using your measurements of a 31 inches waist and weight of 155 pounds your body fat percentage is estimated to be 12.07 % using the U.S. Navy body fat formula, or 11.30 % using the formula developed by the YMCA."

Not so differnt from the 13% that my Tanita scale reports. So, my goal weight of 145 lbs may be possible. Would really like to be tested hydrostatically to really know what's possible.

Aerobic Development: Years and Years

"Your aerobic development is a gradual thing. It takes years and years of marathon-type training to develop your aerobic capacity to the fullest."

--Arthur Lydiard

Got Monkey Butt?

 

Performance Center in Santa Monica

Forster Physical Therapy: "PHASE IV is a scientific training and performance center for athletes of all abilities."

Must be something like this in the Bay Area.

The Journel of Nutrition

I suppose there's lot's to learn at The Journel of Nutrition archive

Improving Lung Health

Improving Lung Health: "Increased glutathione levels have been shown to IMPROVE LUNG FUNCTION"

Not sure what to make of this. Found out about this stuff on Jim Gilliam's health wiki.

Why Estimates are Muda

Because it adds no value!! So how can you tell the client when the project will be done when you don't have estimates? Can lead time, WIP, and flow rates be used?

Read more at www.agilemanagement.net...

The Science of Kenyan Eating

Runnning Research News is reporting:

The Kenyans were ingesting about 10.4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body mass each day, or approximately 4.7 grams per pound of body weight. An amazing facet of the Kenyans'eating habits was the consistency of this carbohydrate intake: Every 24 hours, the Kenyans took in about 600 grams of carbohydrate, with very little variation from day to day. They were truly stocking their leg muscles with glycogen, giving their sinews the right fuel necessary for the high-intensity training they were conducting - and avoiding the fatiguewhich automatically follows on the heels of glycogen wipe-outs....


For me @ 155 lbs, that would equal 728.5 grams of carbs or 2914 kcal. My current diet calls for 1860 kcal (not that I follow this with any rigor).

I wonder if they consume less protein or fat.

Coggan Notes

My highest recorded Normalized Power (NP) for one hour is 271 watts (225 average). This was done Oct. 2nd 2004 during a group ride. During this period it was common for my 1 NP to be ~255. Earlier this month I did 259 during a Saturday ride.

How many times a week should during winter should threshold work be done? I thought the focus of winter training was to raise aerobic capacity (base as they call it)?

Threshold Power == 247-285 which *is* impossible on my trainer.

Threshold workout might consist of:
2 weeks of 2 x 15 @ 260 watts w/ 1 minute rest interval
2 weeks of 3 x 15 @ 260 watts w/ 1 minute rest interval
2 weeks of 2 x 20 @ 260 watts w/ 5 minute rest interval


Coggan did 12 weeks of 2 x 20 and raised his FT.


Coggan Notes
-------------------
There's absolutely nothing magic about 20 min efforts

There's a zillion possible ways inducing the same physiological adaptations:
1) keep the efforts at least 15 min in duration, or
2) keep the rest periods between them very short (i.e., 1 min or less).

For example, for that same hour of training you could do 4 x 15 min or 2 x 30 min instead of 3 x 20 min, or you could do 12 x 5 min/1 min. Or, you could lower the intensity a bit (not a lot) and stretch the duration out to 90-120 min...whatever works for you.


BTW, this morning I did 1 x 30 min at an IF of ~0.9 followed by 4 x 5 min/1 min at an IF of 1.0 (for the on periods). With warm-up and cool-down I got in 50 min of level 4 training and was on and off the trainer in just over 60 min.


Efforts of less than ~15 min duration aren't as effective at raising functional threshold power as longer (e.g., 20+ min) efforts unless you keep the rest period between them very short, so as to basically trick your physiology into thinking it is one continuous effort. As for the total amount of time, you should usually aim for something in the 30-60 min range...less than that, and you aren't doing as much as you could, whereas more than that, you'll probably either have to lower the intensity too much and/or will be too fatigued to train productively the following day. (You could, however, probably do as much as 90 min of level 4 training - e.g., 3 x 30 min - if you kept the intensity at the very bottom of the range. In most cases, though, I think you're better off during such workouts by keeping the intensity a bit higher and hence the duration a bit shorter...if you feel the need to "dig deeper" you can always sandwich the level 4 efforts with plenty of level 2 training, and/or just do an extended level 3 ride.)


Sweet Sport Hypothesis

The sweet spot *hypothesis* can be stated this way: for a given recovery
"cost", you can do so much more level 3 than level 4 that the overall
"dose" of training you can absorb tends to be slightly or somewhat
greater. Keep in mind, however, that this is really just a hypothesis,
and that at some point you have to up the intensity to satisfy the
overload principle.