daredevil

I'll preface this by saying, yes I know, I should talk to a doctor but I thought I'd run it by all you folks first.

I ride pretty much daily and I typically ride pretty hard. I live in the mountains so it is hard to avoid climbs and I generally hammer them out of the saddle much of the time. In fact that's my favorite part of most rides. I take very little time for recovery or stretching but I've always been that way. So, no surprise at 50+, I have some extreme muscle soreness inside my right thigh which occasionally radiates an arthritic type of pain down the leg. It is very tender and feels bruised. I've finally decided I better take some time off. Part of the problem may be the right leg compensating for the left which has had a couple hip replacements. Also, it doesn't hurt at all on the bike which I find strange. That may be another reason for the problem. I don't have any pain which would immediately make me back off. I've been able to ride on.

Anyway, the question. Have any of you experienced this feeling of tender bruised muscles. When you do, do you take time off or focus more on warm up and stretching? Do you ice them, massage them, heat them? Rub on some pre ride warm up stuff maybe?

At our age, do you worry some of these aches and pains are just gonna stay with you forever and you just have to learn to live with it? I know I worry a bit that something could happen physically that would keep me off the bike and I really can't bear the thought of that. I bet a lot of you are the same.

So there ya go, a whole bunch of issues dealing with age and pain. Please discuss.

The Weak Link

Rub some dirt on it and it'll go away.

You will recieve some dissertations here shortly. A quick summary:
--if it hurts, back off a bit.
--if it hurts a lot, see a physical therapist or a physician.
RICE after a ride:
Rest
Ice
Compression (Wraps, probably not that important)
Elevation.

Vitamin A (Advil) if you don't have any stomach or kidney issues.

Lots of beer and ice cream might help. Just don't take them together.

head_wind

Bite the offending part off and spit it out. You don't need it.



Sorry, thats all I've got.

Cassave

Huh??? Ever tried a beer float? Superb. Carbs and protein in every gulp.

Digital Gee

Is this going to be on the final?

nalax49

It would be worth it to have that checked out.

cyclezen

every now and then I get to that same place, legs are just achy screamin at me. If I don't ride it seems to take MUCH longer to recover. I just ride it off. Not your avg recovery ride, really small twiddlin gear (low 60s) at 75 rpm, no higher, no real hills, back off even further on any upgrades, no higher than 120 on the HRM better at 110, for 1 hour. light icing after the ride for maybe 10 min. and then a very even, not heavy self-massage about 2 or 3 hours after that and some very light overall stretching which sometimes is laying on the carpet and melting into it. Couple of IBUs just before bed.
3 sometimes 4 days of that and I'm ready to go again.
Oh, and lotsa hydration... thatz always been my worst thing; I don;t think I ever really stay hydrated as well as I should - just so easy to overlook

MNBikeguy

Same here.
When the legs are screamin', the next day I take a 10-15 mile slow paced ride and the recovery is almost immediate. I ride the 520 for these rather than the CF roadie, since one time a JAB blew by me while riding the Trek 5200 on one of these recovery rides and he said, "What a waste of a bike." What a jackass..

daredevil

Thanks for the comments and good point about the water. That is something else I've never been good at staying on top of.

Carusoswi

Looking back over the last year, I realize that I have lived through four major spills - 1) was right hooked by a driver - nothing broken, but god-awful bruising and soreness that lasted for six weeks, 2)attempted to avoid a ped during a downhill on a MUP . . . my fault, misjudged the curve and crash hard on my right shoulder (and whatever bones/muscles are contiguous to that area) . . . sore for weeks (talkin' 'bout not being able to pull on your T-shirt or lay on a sofa . . . really sore), 3)Took a corner too fast (10 mph) on a rainy evening braked for a car, slid out and totalled my bike (only the bike, my wallet, and ego were injured), 4) surprised by a car at a T-intersection when I was descending at a high rate of speed - "touched" the rear brakes (obviously too hard), lost control and landed on my left shoulder. Felt as though I might have broken my collar bone. Decided to wait a couple of days to see if the pain got better or worse. It got better, but slowly. Didn't visit a doctor, but, I'm telling you, I could not bear to rest my back against a chair back - that sucker was really sore. Forget pulling on or off a T-shirt.

Growing long story cut short - Right or wrong, I believe doctors are the course of last resort. I do normal maintenance doctoring (PSA, Colon, Cholesterol, Stress test, etc.), but, I don't run to them for non-life threatening injuries. I rode through that last shoulder/collarbone aggravation - today, it's almost non-evident.

As for sore muscles, I really don't worry about them.

Now, your mileage may vary greatly, and there is no right or wrong here. Do what feels right to you.

I for one don't worry too much about muscles soreness or even injuries. For the time being, my body still seems capable of healing itself.

YMMV, so do what feels right for you.

Good Luck,
Caruso

daredevil

Ya, I'm not going to worry about it too much. I'm gonna take 2-3 days off and get right back to it. With the hills I have to ride though, it makes me wonder how long it will take for this soreness to go away. Maybe it would be wise to sit a bit more on hills and of course try to be a little better at warming up, stretching, and hydrating. Maybe you can get away without doing that when you're a kid but now...as if I didn't know that already.

stonecrd

I find soreness comes and goes and if my legs are tight at the beginning of a ride they generally will loosen up and the ride will be fine. So unless I had done some extra long or hard rides prior I would just ride through it.

The Weak Link

There's an entire clinic of physical therapists near my house, all of whom are serious bikers. If you can find such a crew, they're a very helpful resource to us old coots.

Hermes

See your doc and get checked out. Asking this gang for med advice pre-doc visit for acute pain is a very bad idea since acute pain could be any number of bad things including a blood clot in your leg. Once the doc says yep, sore muscles do to blah blah then we can cast our pearls of wisdom upon you.

daredevil

Gotcha, but I wouldn't catergorize this as acute pain even though my post may have led one to believe that. I'm figuring it's 50+ soreness that many of us experience because we don't know when to back off.

And I certainly wouldn't base my entire diagnosis on this group alone, are you kidding? Look at us! A bunch of old farts playing on bicycles! I look at this as a harmless discussion of aging and soreness. What things work for you, what don't. As I mentioned in my opening, I know when to see a doctor.

chipcom 

You gotta take a day off now and then, regularly. Working yourself every day without rest days won't improve your fitness, it will ultimately just tear you down. Ask any racer - rest days and recovery days are just as important as training days.

late

Once a week take a day off. While you are resting up the next couple days, take at least one long walk. You want to keep the blood flowing, same as a recovery ride would do.

Also, eat a bunch of fruit, especially pineapple, papaya, or kiwi. That will help.