Commuting: Feeling the effort

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6 Comments 02 September 2010

I just realized my frame has a typo with double "fatties" in the chainstay

That Shimano 105 crankset you see before you has been the conduit of my thighs pumping power to propel me onwards to a cycling future of poetry in the land of too long sentences. After the last month and nearly doubling my riding from previous months I can surely say that it’s very effective because my thighs keep reminding me about their existence daily.

I have done my due diligence, rested pretty as much as possible, kept myself hydrated and ate properly. According to my nearly medical analysis, the strain in my thigh area is related to immense amounts of cycling done in the last month. Which is pretty obvious. Still, I’m at a standstill – Should I take a longer rest week to recuperate or just keep on going and chance it with overreaching (which we mentioned in our article about fighting fatigue).

Does anyone have ideas or suggestions to help with recovery? Stretching? Pilates?

Markus Sandelin

Markus Sandelin -
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who has written 201
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posts on Coming thru!.

Markus is a bike commuter gadget freak who is learning the ropes of the bike world, you can find him all around the web - but you can start with his twitter at @banton.

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Jaakko

I had the same issue recently though with a different sport and muscle group. Stretching works, but if it’s already aching, then stretching is probably too late. :) It’s hard to say how much another person’s muscles hurt but if it’s really painful then ample amounts rest is the only cure. If the pain is only slight then biking more can take it away too. Some people also take magnesium pills but I haven’t tried so I can’t say if they work.
Skelle

If your pain is muscle related, I would not worry too much. Water, magnesium and vit C should get you through. Take it easy for a bit, and you may want to focus on a higher rotation speed rather than pushing your pedals too hard. Rest, as in do not cycle at all, is not necessary I think.

If your pain is tendon related, or something else, that’s another glass of beer. In that case: rest or get more advise.

Good luck!
Markus Varha

Thanks for the comments, I’ve already gone with a higher cadence since the beginning and I don’t think the problems come from there. Also, I wouldn’t say that there’s pain, just a matter of endurance then I guess. I’ll also have to try the magnesium, since I don’t think my multivitamin’s have enough of that then.

Ergonomics are good (especially with a shorter stem coming soon), so it’s all about actual muscles working too much ;)
Skelle

Markus, I just had this post coming in, you need foam rolling :)

http://blog.bikeridr.com/2010/09/no-pain-no-gain-injury-prevention-and-the-foam-roller/
Markus Varha

It seems I do, thanks Pascal!
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Coming Thru (or Coming Through - as that URL was taken) is a daily updated bike magazine - a collection of writings and links that relate to biking in its every form. The idea started from when Maarten met Markus decided to finally start collecting the things we like about bikes and talk about our everyday adventures in dodging moving objects at high speeds.The site is run by a collage of cyclists, most notably by Canadian Johanna MacDonald, Belgian Maarten Patteeuw and Finnish Markus Sandelin.

It all started in the spring of 2010, after a record breaking snowy winter when Markus bought a house 25 kilometers from the office and decided to handle the commuting with a bicycle. It turned out the bike wasn’t up to standards for that kind of stress and the first weeks were more tragicomic than glorious. Thus the idea began to brew to actually document this journey.

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