Legs that get that "lactic acid" burn... for no reason.
 

Maybe someone can explain this...

I ride and train 4-5 days a week and have slowly upped my volume to 200+ miles a week. I ride at fairly high intensity levels (though I haven't really started full on intervals yet). From April to November my volume goes up to 300+ miles a week with weekly club rides twice a week and a (planned) race or two per month.

I have a very GOOD recovery program that seems to work for me. I get around 10 hours of sleep at night, and on harder training days I'll try to take a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. I stretch alot and sometimes elevate my legs at night and self embrocate.

I do have a rather high resistance to lactic acid burn while riding. Even when I hit my LAT I rarely if ever get any "burning" sensation in my thighs or calves (I usually just get slower).

However, I live in a two story house. Sometimes (or should I say "often") the next day usually in the morning after I wake up, when running up the stairs (or even walking up them) my legs will get that lactic acid burn. It's just 14 steps.

Is this from lactic acid build-up in my legs from the day before and if so how do I get rid of that? Anyone else experience this?

Yeah I get it too. I think we all do. Maybe it's blood pooling.

It's a weird sensation for sure, especially after a LONG night of sleep.

Yeah I get it also. I though it was because I didn't get enough rest.

I had that problem even when I was a competitive runner. I always thought it was because my quads didnt recover well. I still get it now over 20 years later.

I get that when I start to come into pretty good shape. Doesn't seem to affect riding performance at all. Maybe it has something to do with the muscles preparing for work, I don't know.

knotty

How much water are you drinking each day? Water helps remove the lactic acid from your body. It seems rather simple but it may help.

A couple of times, when I was sleeping during the night, if I woke up suddenly and moved my legs, the calf muscle of one of my legs would contract and it sucked. Anyways, the next morning I felt that lactic acidy burn. Perhaps you've had one and didn't know it.

Sounds more like a case of DOMS. After a hard day of riding I sit in an ice bath for 10 minutes, works well for me. Check it out.

For me, I usually train moderately hard two to three days out of the week, and either race on the weekends, do long and calm training rides or taking care of business (i.e. not on the bike). After I started improving on the bike, I would notice that the day after my training, doing a lot of common stuff would hurt a lot more than usual, i.e. walking would burn when it would not before.

After spinning easy for about half an hour or so the night before, my legs are excellent the next morning.

So many health-related things change after becoming a serious cyclist, it's amazing.