leg soreness! what's up with it!?

millzebub

Ok. I have read other posts that say that most people do not encounter soreness in their legs after riding and that is good. I experience soreness in mine regularly. Is that bad? Are my legs just weak or what?

Gueron

Short answers, yes it's bad and no, your legs are probably not just weak. Pain is an important warning sign, and if it is consistent it should not be ignored.

Are you referring to muscle soreness or other soreness in the leg, like the knee or shin?

Last year, shortly after I started riding, I was told I was too large for my bike. It had a 17 inch frame and I am 6'2". After a particularly painful accident, I purchased a different bike, with a 21 inch frame, and was much more comfortable. Still, when I was measured, they raised my seat about 5 inches, and it is a lot easier to ride now.

If you have not sized your bike to you (or vice versa), you might want to check the way you sit, and ride. If you have a Bike Shop in your area that does measure cyclists, they might be able to adjust your bike to better fit you. I'm sure there are others on the forum that could tell you how to adjust to you.

If it is muscle pain, and adjusting the bike doesn't help, you might be overtraining. Take a short break from riding (2-3 days), and then try again. If that doesn't help then there might be a medical issue, see if you can have a physical with a doctor you trust, and explain the problem. I've yet to meet a physician who thinks exercise is bad, though I have met some whose idea of diet is nowhere near mine.

Gueron

sogood

If you are seriously training, then you almost definitely will get sore muscles. No different to any other physical activities.

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Morphed Bianchi Camaleonte IV 2006, Ridley Damocles 2006, Garmin, Mac

millzebub

First of all, thank you for your thoughtful reply! So, yes, it is muscle soreness. I have not had a proper fit but I did do the fit calculator at competitivecyclist.com. I made adjustments based on that and they seem ok. I may be overtraining. I guess it is relative though, right? I do a lot of climbing. In fact, every time I ride I climb. Maybe I should do some flat rides or just go at a mellower pace on the climbs? I do take rest days. 2 a week. So I think I get enough rest. I have been improving steadily despite the soreness also. I have only been cycling for about a year so maybe my muscles are still getting used to the stress of riding a lot...
Well, thanks again. If it gets worse maybe I 'll talk to a doctor...

millzebub

that's good to know. I got the impression that it was abnormal from some stuff I have read, and my cycling friends don't seem to ever get sore either. I guess everyone is different. Thanks for the response!

sogood

If you cruise around you won't get muscle aches. But if you push yourself then muscles will get strained and you'll feel the soreness after. Then your muscles will repair and hypertrophy in response to the strain placed on it. As the old saying goes... "No pain, no gain".

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Morphed Bianchi Camaleonte IV 2006, Ridley Damocles 2006, Garmin, Mac

warriorcliff77

I know i'm just a rook, are you eating after your rides? I read some where on here that you should be eating within 20 min after your ride, to refuel your body so it can "repair" itself.

I recently began having a protien shake with a banana after my rides, and now i don't have the soreness the next day.

daveryanwyoming

I agree with your basic post, muscles do get sore sometime, but there's almost no muscular hypertrophy associated with training for cycling unless you're doing standing starts or other high force/low velocity work. Yeah, I know I'm nitpicking but talking about hypertrophy resulting from road training leads into the whole myth that cycling power is about peak muscular strength.

Check out these articles by Andy on the subject:
http://home.earthlink.net/~acoggan/misc/id4.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~acoggan/setraining/

-Dave

millzebub

I read that as well and I have been trying to eat shortly after riding but not always. That makes sense though. thanks!

millzebub

I was wondering. On my normal rides I climb a lot as I said before. I find it difficult in some areas to keep my cadence above 70rpm. Could this kind of repeated workout cause the hypertrophy (and soreness) you refer to? I read the second article and it seemed to be more extreme, with heavy loads and very low cadence, i.e. ~40rpm. I am unable to "spin" at a higher cadence because of the grade on these climbs which seems to essentially create the scenario described in these articles, albeit to a lesser extent...

Scotty_Dog

What's preventing you from spinning at a higher cadence? Please describe the gearing of your drivetrain.

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"There is alot of blather here that does not float the hooey barge." boudreaux 11/22/2005

daveryanwyoming

Sounds like you need lower gears by either changing your rear cluster or going to a compact crank if you're regularly dropping below 40 rpm on climbs. Dropping below 70 rpm on steep climbs isn't unusual, but lower gears can help you avoid that as well.

You might want to read that second article again. It basically says you can only really get into muscle hypertrophy on the bike with standing starts or focused seated accellerations and that the concept of Strength Endurance Training doesn't hold up under analysis because your muscles are still working at a very low percentage of their peak force even at 40 rpm on a steep hill. Here's a quote from the conclusion:Anyway I don't think your pedaling at 40 rpm on hills is going to result in much hypertrophy or increase in muscle fiber cross section. Pedaling at any cadence on hills that get you breathing deep and steady and are long enough(ideally longer than 10 minutes) will result in increased mitochondrial and capillary densities, increased heart stroke volume and ultimately increased ability to generate power on the bike. And that's really what we're targeting, not hypertrophy and higher peak muscular forces.

-Dave

millzebub

well, I think the highest combo is 39-27 on the small ring. I could be mis-stating that. I know that my easiest gear is 27.