photonick

God I can't win with fit, I just can't, as soon as I fix something something else happens. Maybe you guys were right about my Arione not fitting me. I've had this happen several times only when I'm really cranking hard, either up hills or doing speed work. I'll get this ache in front of my sit bones where my inner thigh hits the wings of my seat. It will get so bad sometimes I can't stand or sit, the only thing that kind of helps is squatting and stretching out my legs for awhile. Do you think this is from a seat being a bad fit or from just pushing my body too hard too quickly? I'm always moving around on my Arione and love that seat and paid good money for it so I've been trying to pretend it's not the center of my fit problems...but maybe it is.

prendrefeu

Saddle + get a professional fitting (that will help adjust saddle fore/aft, possibly angle).

/thread.\


(edit: just because you paid $$ for a saddle doesn't mean it's the best one for you. Your 'love' of that saddle may be tied to the monetary investment you put in it. Sell it, someone will snatch it up for more than you think it's worth used. Try other saddles. Keep trying other saddles. KEEP TRYING OTHER SADDLES.... I think you get the picture. Competitive Cyclist has a saddle-trying program. Consider it.)

photonick

I had my bike fit, but I'm going to try and go back and get him to focus more on the saddle this time. The saddle is in perfect condition with just a bit of the red leather rubbed off on the rear from being in my car. I'll ask my buddy if I can try his Toupe, I'll look into competitive cyclists also.

Red Rider

+1 on the professional fitting. Do you stretch while on the bike? When coasting you can stretch hamstrings when pedals are at 90*. If you're already doing this, you may want to consider a yoga class to help deepen your stretching and flexibility.

Do you have a diagnosis as to your condition?

photonick

I stretch on the bike but this terrible ache in my back thigh only comes when I'm mashing hard up the hill or doing speed work pushing a bit gear. It really feels like the wings on my Arione are giving my thighs or hammys a charlie horse almost. It's not like a little pain it aches so bad I have to stop, the first time it happened after a few miles of switch backs I almost called someone to pick me up!

I haven't gotten diagnosed yet, it's going away on its own though! (knock on wood). I did go to a nuero today and they're going to run some tests. I hope it was just some crazy virus that attacked me hard and didn't let go, but untill I get a clean ENG and MRI back I'm not ruling anything serious out.

Hey, well if the tests come back fine then this whole experience just strengthened my love for cycling and made it a more serious part of my life. Plus all the sitting on my couch got me into following racing...maybe this wasn't so bad!

Ralleh

My guess would be that you are sitting too far forward on your saddle and that you need to have a shorter stem so you can plant your sit bones squarely on the the back of it. You could move the seat forward a bit in addition to that.

photonick

Stem is already 90 mm, I could try and move the saddle forward a bit I guess. I wish I could HTFU this through but it's just way to debilitating when it happens. It's like charlie horses.

Ralleh

Have you posted a pic here of you on the bike? Feel free to make it a silhouette for added hilarity.

photonick

hahaha

urbanknight

Based on what I saw yesterday, you're riding too fast

Is it a muscle pain or a joint pain? The former makes you stronger. The latter sucks and requires a better fit. The front of my thighs hurt terribly after climbing Camino San Rafael yesterday!!!

fordfasterr

pic of bike / possibly one pic of you sitting on bike with leg horizontal, one with leg extended max down.

tommyrod74

I had the EXACT SAME issue as the OP after a crit on Tuesday night- very hard effort at the end (5th place, thanks for asking and immediately afterwards I couldn't sit for more than 1 cooldown lap. Felt like exactly what you're describing. Took me 20 seconds to sit on the bleachers afterwards, and an hour of walking around to loosen up. Still very sore today, like a charlie horse. I had just adjusted my saddle aft that day, and suspect that I was sitting on the wrong part of the saddle somehow. I have also lowered my stem recently, increasing saddle-to-bar drop and this may have made this muscle (kinda below glutes/above hamstrings, right in front of sitbones) to be more stretched out and vulnerable under hard contractions like a sprint.

Getting fitted today or tomorrow- I work at a good shop with Serotta fitters- I'll keep you posted as to my findings. I suspect some combo of bad saddle position and too much drop/not enough flexibility.

EDIT- I'm on the Bontrage Inform saddle, 146mm (medium) width, been measured several times, had this saddle on previous bike, no issues. Similar, flattish design as an Arione (which is same width as the narrow, 138-or-so mm Bontrager).

photonick

Haha thanks man...i felt reasonably fast yesterday, I did about 20 miles of that but I mean John killed me and he was sick and already had 15 miles under his belt haha.

This is totally 100% muscle pain/ache, it goes away, best way to describe it is like a backwards charlie horse. I just don't know if its from the seat hitting me in the wrong way or just from firing my legs too hard.

photonick

Wow you are describing the exact same thing as me, you know what I found helps is if you get off the bike (no good for a race i know) and squat and just sort of sit there maybe lightly bouncing up and down for a few seconds even. I got it so bad during a climb once I just had to sit on the side of the road doing this. I'm bummed though my friend can't let me borrow his toupe so I'm going to have to trust my fitter.

Ugh and I just realized my LBS that fits me doesn't carry specialized...

urbanknight

Maybe try sitting a little further forward on the saddle (moving the saddle back as much to keep the same position), but scratch it if it causes other problems.

photonick

I feel like when i sit too far forward i hurt my taint, i've been sitting farther back bending my mid back more and feeling like my sit bones are connected up better.

urbanknight

Hmmm sounds like you're not too fond of the taper of the saddle. That happened to me when I switched to my Toupe, but the pain went away after a while (although I can still tell my thighs rub the saddle there).

prendrefeu