Leg pain
 

Hello everyone. I have near constant pain in my legs. It almost feels as if the lactic acid never flushes out. I do about 200+ miles a week at medium intensity. I drink protein shakes, eat well, get plenty of fluids and rest. I stretch and take 2 off days a week. Nothing really seems to help. I talked to my doctor and he had nothing for me. I was hoping for some insight from you folks.
Thank you, Mark

See another doctor. Maybe one that specializes in sports medicine...

Probably no one wants to reply because there's not much information here. Age, length of time biking, appox. miles this season, vegetarian?, how much protein/day in shakes, vitamins, other supplements, legs hurt when - on the bike, off the bike, in bed, after the ride, all the time - group rides, solo rides, spinning classes, etc., etc., etc. Oh, bike position - checked by bike fitter or self checked, if so how, da de da de da. Do you race, if so when . . .

How long have you been doing 200 miles/week? Did you just start doing this? If so, count on having constant pain for six weeks. :)

do you drink alcohol at all? i think getting fit shaced once every couple of weeks will make a big difference for you.

Have you tried getting a sports massage? You might try The Stick. I like it a lot, an LBS might have one you can try. http://www.thestick.com/

1. what kind of terrain?
2. what kind of gearing & RPMs used?
3. what kind of rides?
4. what kind of recovery?
5. etc.

leg pain
 

I knew I would need more qualifying information so here goes..
Terrain; Mostly rolling and flat.
Gearing and RPM's; I have a triple and very rarely use the granny gear. I'm not sure of the teeth count, but my last ride was a Fuji Cross and my new ride is a Roubaix Elite Triple. I don't know my precise RPM's but I feel I'm doing a moderate to heavy output.
Kind of rides; Anywhere from 12 to 30 miles. I go fast when I can and go slow when I have to.
Recovery; 2 rest days a week. Plenty of sleep. Protein. Massage. Hot showers. Stretching.
As for sports massage; My wife is a massage therapist.
Do I drink?; I have 1 or 2 glasses of red wine a night. I get a buzz maybe once a week.
I have been doing long distances for at least 5 years.
Age; 39. 40 in June.
Carnivore.
Legs hurt most all of the time.
Daily multi-vitamin, 25 grams protein in my shakes, solo rides only, and bike fitted at LBS.
I hope this gives you some more info. Thanks for any information.
Mark

You're either grossly overtrained and need to take a week off, a blocked blood vessel in the area above the legs, or some blood chemical imbalance, or something really weird. See a sports med doctor and get a full blood panel done. I'm not a doc - just a coach - so get a real diagnosis.

In the meantime, get some creatine and glutamine powder, and take 5g of each 4 times per day with plenty of liquid water is fine. See what happens.

If there's any other pain anywhere else, or your thighs feel cold during a ride - stop riding. Might not be a bad idea to stop anyway.

Something doesn't add up. You say you ride over 200 miles a week, but you ride 5 days a week for 12-30 miles. At most that would be 150 miles.

Untill recently I didn't have a computer, so a lot of the numbers are averages. I probably do less than 200, but not much.
mark

if its constant, and in the legs, I'd say 'chemistry', diet
if I relate it to a similar condition I had this December thur Mid-Feb, it was my 'diet'...
not that I was eating poorly or out of proportion. I tend to eat 'balanced' with a leaning to protein and higher fiber carbs.
But, as it turns out, I wasn;t keeping my electrolytes well balanced or high enough.
I added daily supplements of Potassium and Magnesium in addition to B-complex and a B12 additionally every 3 days.
I cut back a little on my daily dose of Red wine - from 1 1/2 glass to 1 glass (about 5-6 oz)

worked wonders, in 2 weeks I noticed huge improvments, in 4 weeks the pain was mostly gone except for expected pain after a really nasty workout.

+1
A couple 500 calcium/250 magnesium tabs/day can work wonders. Wine is poison for me. I enjoy it, but it kills my workouts the next day. I'd say no wine or beer except for after your hard weekend ride. There's not enough resveratrol in a glass of red wine to do anything.

You know, I hadn't thought about it, but did you fly recently? There's a chance it could be deep vein thrombosis or something, which is quite deadly if untreated. Get thee to a physician.

Do you ever take a week off?

It was recommended in the racing forum to be sure and "spin out" your legs after your ride- that would be taking the last 5 or 10 minutes of each ride and going very easy at a moderate cadence. I think the idea is to help your system clear out the lactic acid built up promote comfortable recovery.

I do know if I go hard and don't taper the effort at the end of the ride, I'm just not as comfortable later.

Anyone else think this might help?


Thread here: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=296668

Very unlikely to be in both legs, and existing over a long period of time - by now it would have either resolved itself or the fella would have thrown a pulmonary embolism. If it's more localized pain, accompanied by redness, warmth, swelling, than it's worth checking out, but I seriously doubt it.

Sounds like overtraining to me, IMHO.

Well whatever it was , I took the advice of aikigreg and have been using glutimine powder for the last 3 days. I don't know if it is a placebo effect or not, but my legs feel 100% better than they have in months or even years. Thank you all for the suggestions and your time.
Mark

Funny,

What is your nutrition like during and after your riding? I've found that using Endurox after my rides had a big effect on how much leg pain I have after rides.