Sore Legs

Eat as soon as you get home. Vegetables, lean meat and low glycemic foods make a great recovery m,eal that wont make you fat. Its best to eat within 30 minutes after a ride if possible, but as soon after as you can is fine. Lots of water and maybe a energy drink while you ride. Keep your legs rasied after a hard ride and massage your muscles starting at your feet and move towards your heart. Does Wonders!! Also-try laying on your back on the floor or bed and putting your legs stright up on the wall for awhile.

Ray

talljames said:

Not sure what I am doing wrong. It seems my legs ache days after a ride. I usually get up to 30km/h and stay at that speed for my trips, depending on hills of course. I did a 60km ride the other weekend and it took ages to get the ache out of my legs. Does anyone have any tips to reduce aching after a ride? Eating perhaps?

cheers
James:o

Good tips for recovery from Ray. Would also suggest you need to slow down. Sounds like you get to 30 kph and hold it as long as possible; that makes every ride a TT effort. Forget the speed thing for awhile and just enjoy the ride. You don't need to hurt yourself to make progress....at least not on every ride.

You didn't say how long you've been cycling. If you've been riding pain-free for years, and this problem just started, then ignore my advice; something else is likely going on.

talljames said:

Not sure what I am doing wrong. It seems my legs ache days after a ride. I usually get up to 30km/h and stay at that speed for my trips, depending on hills of course. I did a 60km ride the other weekend and it took ages to get the ache out of my legs. Does anyone have any tips to reduce aching after a ride? Eating perhaps?

cheers
James:o

Is it a particular part of your leg? eg. if it's quads, your seat might be too low, putting overload on your quads?

Ice Bath
Not sure whether an ice bath might help? A couple of bags of ice in a bath, just covering your legs, for 10 mins. When you do this, the blood vessels tighten and drain the blood out of your legs (including the lactic acid). When you get out of the bath, "new blood" brings oxygen to your muscles and aids recovery.

If you're not sure about this, then when you shower after a ride, try turning on just cold water and holding your legs under there for a few minutes each. Not quite icy...but definitely cold! I've done this, with some positive results.

Walrus said:

Is it a particular part of your leg? eg. if it's quads, your seat might be too low, putting overload on your quads?

If it's the adductor group and the pain is in medial side of the groin, what might the problem be? :o

sogood said:

If it's the adductor group and the pain is in medial side of the groin, what might the problem be? :o

Pelvic instability and weak glut medius are pre disposing factors to adductor pain in general, it could apply to cycling, not sure of specifics in cycling.

wow, what a lot of good ideas! I use two bottles of Endura on my rides, but I must admit I don't eat until some hours later after ariving home. I also don't warm up or down and I don't stretch either. So, I guess I am missing all the things that I should be doing.

I've been riding for about 10 years, but not with any clubs. Just by myself. Although that may change very soon as I just picked up a new race/touring bike. See my other thread. cyclingforums.comt372433.htmlOpen ↗

thanks for all your comments. I have a polar S125 that measures heart rate. I think I may have gone past my limit a couple of times. I have heard that from the tour de france as having cracked and the body will not respond as well any more.

cheers
James

talljames said:

....but I must admit I don't eat until some hours later after ariving home. I also don't warm up or down and I don't stretch either. So, I guess I am missing all the things that I should be doing.

Those would be high on my list of habits to change with your cycling. Take at least five or ten minutes to warm up at a steadily increasing but comfortable pace. You've got to loosen up your muscles and let your body adjust to what's coming next. Also that critical half hour after you get home is very important for replacing muscle glycogen. There's a host of good recovery drinks on the market, but just good healthy food with plenty of complex carbs or as a recent study indicated a glass of chocolate milk will do wonders for replenishing your muscles and getting you ready for future efforts.

Quoted post said:

thanks for all your comments. I have a polar S125 that measures heart rate. I think I may have gone past my limit a couple of times. I have heard that from the tour de france as having cracked and the body will not respond as well any more.

Not quite sure what you're saying here, are you talking about your estimated anearobic threshold (1 hour pace), some predefined "limit" or your max hr (by definition you can't go over this limit as each time you do you simply redefine the max). Regardless, cycling whether recreational or in the tour as you describe is a sport where you simply can't hold things to predefined limits except in special cases like a flat time trial. You'll always bump up HR or power in response to headwinds, hills, attacks in a group ride, etc. That is you'll bump up your efforts if you want to stay with the other folks. People don't blow up or permanently damage themselves with some harder than planned efforts unless it's for prolonged durations or you have to exceed your comfort range too much and too often. Racing cyclists refer to this as "burning matches" with the analogy being a pack of matches each representing a short hard effort beyond your ideal pacing. When you've burnt them all and there's one more hard effort in a race you're off the back and all alone as the peloton heads towards the finish line.

Anyway, it sounds like you go out and time trial day after day after day.... Certainly some cyclists like triathaletes have to do more of this kind of work than others but even they have harder days and easier days in their schedule. If you want to be an all around cyclist it really pays to vary your pace on your training rides. If you want to race you should structure a plan or get a coach that can help you understand how to vary your efforts to develop your different energy utilization systems. If you're on a recreational track but want to ride farther and faster consider simply riding fast some days, casually and longer others, some days should be hilly, some flatter, etc. I suspect your day after day 30+kph pace is as much responsible for your persistent sore legs as your lack of warmup, cool down and glycogen replacement.

Good luck,
Dave

talljames said:

Not sure what I am doing wrong. It seems my legs ache days after a ride. I usually get up to 30km/h and stay at that speed for my trips, depending on hills of course. I did a 60km ride the other weekend and it took ages to get the ache out of my legs. Does anyone have any tips to reduce aching after a ride? Eating perhaps?

cheers
James:o

Simply, ride more.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm reading between the lines and picking up that you ride infrequently (up to several days between cycling) and when you do get on the bike you're going fairly hard. You've already received some good advice, but I would also strongly suggest riding almost daily, even if just 15 minutes easy -especially the day following your 'trip'.

Yep, lots of good suggestions especially in regards to warming up, and more importantly, warming down, eating and stretching. Sipping on sports drinks while you ride is a great idea, especially if your going hard.

Further more don't ride hard everyday - your body will never get a chance to recover, and 1. you won't improve much & 2. you will constantly feel tired and sore.

Mix it up with some easy and moderate rides.

I think rayhuang meant it well, but you REALLY should eat high glycemic carbohydrates as soon as you are done with your training, plus a little protein. This is the most effective way of ensuring that you recover well. Eat this small recovery meal within 20 min.after your ride. Then you should continue eating healthy foods afterwards - and here rayhuangs eating tips are fine.

+1 on having a little bit of protein, in addition to the other suggestions, protein is needed to repair the damage done to the muscles while riding. To ensure a consistent supply for muscle repairing, try and feed the body a bit of protien regulary over the day, ie make sure that each meal has some protein in it and take some sort of snack between meals with a bit of proteing in it.

rayhuang said:

Eat as soon as you get home. Vegetables, lean meat and low glycemic foods make a great recovery m,eal that wont make you fat. Its best to eat within 30 minutes after a ride if possible, but as soon after as you can is fine. Lots of water and maybe a energy drink while you ride. Keep your legs rasied after a hard ride and massage your muscles starting at your feet and move towards your heart. Does Wonders!! Also-try laying on your back on the floor or bed and putting your legs stright up on the wall for awhile.

Ray

During and straight after excercise you should eat HIGH GI so that your body can use the suger quickly. Where's the logic in eating straight away when most of what you eat is broken down well after it was needed. Then keep low GI with the rest of your diet.

High vs Low Glycemic foods

I am going off of some new things I have read from Joe Friel and other readings in magazines and internet. I am very concerned about the Hi and Low GI stuff because I am losing weight right now (175 to 157lbs), but not starving myself and wanting fresh legs for all my rides (5x per week). I have read that the only time to eat high glycimic foods is just before or during a ride because of the ability to use it as immediate energy (bananas, sugary energy drinks and bars). Anytime after your body releases insulin when fed high glycemic foods which both sends triggers to the brain that your still hungry and to eat more as well as (in very simple terms) turns that high glycemic food into fat stores instead of into glycogen for muscles. Friel at least recommends a energy drink for recovery (whihc is high GI) and then eat low GI meals.

But I think were all right here. High glycemic foods during and within 30 minutes after a ride wont hurt and may in fact be beneficial. heck-as we know-just about any food right after a hard ride is both welcome and scarfed down happliy.

Ray

rayhuang said:

High vs Low Glycemic foods... I am very concerned about the Hi and Low GI stuff because I am losing weight right now ...

As long as you're on the research path make sure you don't stop with high vs. low glycemic index. Follow it up with some reading on glycemic load. It's important and typically glossed over in the lay text. My wife's a nutritionist and RD and is constantly working with folks that have sworn off the "evils" of high GI foods without an understanding of realistic and representative portion sizes and the resulting glycemic load. GI assumes a uniform portion weight for all foods which isn't realistice whereas GL takes into account how much of a given food you might actually consume. Here's a definition: mendosa.comgilists.htmOpen ↗ and a useful link: mendosa.comgilists.htmOpen ↗

There's also the question of food combining and what that does to insulin response. For instance based on GI alone you'd quickly conclude that baked potatoes are to be avoided at all costs. Add so much as some sour cream to those same potatoes or eat them complete with their skin or along with a lean piece of chicken and the resulting insulin response is quite different. One trouble with our divide and conquer approach to science is that we sometimes take things like food out of context and come up with some misleading conclusions such as the insulin response associated with a single ingredient instead of the actual meal. Here's a piece explaining why GI isn't really useful unless you have diabetes: thedietchannel.comThe Glycemic Index Who Needs It And Why You Probaby Dont.htmOpen ↗

Anyway, don't go too far down the road of shunning high GI foods without taking into account realistic portion sizes(glycemic load) and consideration of how you'd typically eat those foods.

Good luck,
Dave

daveryanwyoming said:

As long as you're on the research path make sure you don't stop with high vs. low glycemic index. Follow it up with some reading on glycemic load. It's important and typically glossed over in the lay text. My wife's a nutritionist and RD and is constantly working with folks that have sworn off the "evils" of high GI foods without an understanding of realistic and representative portion sizes and the resulting glycemic load. GI assumes a uniform portion weight for all foods which isn't realistice whereas GL takes into account how much of a given food you might actually consume. Here's a definition: mendosa.comgilists.htmOpen ↗ and a useful link: mendosa.comgilists.htmOpen ↗

There's also the question of food combining and what that does to insulin response. For instance based on GI alone you'd quickly conclude that baked potatoes are to be avoided at all costs. Add so much as some sour cream to those same potatoes or eat them complete with their skin or along with a lean piece of chicken and the resulting insulin response is quite different. One trouble with our divide and conquer approach to science is that we sometimes take things like food out of context and come up with some misleading conclusions such as the insulin response associated with a single ingredient instead of the actual meal. Here's a piece explaining why GI isn't really useful unless you have diabetes: thedietchannel.comThe Glycemic Index Who Needs It And Why You Probaby Dont.htmOpen ↗

Anyway, don't go too far down the road of shunning high GI foods without taking into account realistic portion sizes(glycemic load) and consideration of how you'd typically eat those foods.

Good luck,
Dave

awesome and thanks!!