Training - Soreness Part 2

Alright I admit it.

My legs are sore.

I've been dropping into my car seat when I get in - because I can't support my body with my legs. I've been lifting my legs with my hands just to get out of my office chair. Rolling over in bed requires planning, pre-rollover maneuvering, and finally a painful execution . Even going to the bathroom has been an adventure as I can't control my descent when I sit.

It's starting to improve. For example, this morning was the first time I could walk up the stairs without wincing. Well not on every step anyway.

Perhaps the Olbas Sports Massage Oil helped last night. That and a mini-massage. And a lot of ribs on July 4th (protein).

I know that the fixed gear bike works different muscles. If it didn't I wouldn't be sore. What I notice is that I have a hard time lifting my legs - hip flexors, hamstrings, that stuff. I can push reasonably well - my "push" soreness disappeared after a half day. My "lift" soreness - well, it's all still sore.

The fixed gear bike forces me to "reverse thrust" to slow down from my 200+ rpm sprints. And I never do that on a regular bike. I simply coast. The backpedaling pressure seems to work my leg lifting muscles.

I feel this is significant. I pull up on the pedals aggressively when I sprint. I know when I'm going well because my abs get really tired from fighting the leg lifting motion and I feel my hip flexors working like mad. And a while back I realized that I haven't felt that fatigue in a while.

When I thought about my best every sprint days, I realized that I had a DX-900 (my spin bike) at my disposal. The guys at the shop would gather around it every few hours and everyone would try and beat each other's top rpm. After the first day we had to rest for something like a week as we were all limping around like we'd just run a marathon. But within a month we'd do these "spin-outs" daily with no problems.

My record back then was 286 rpms and I could sprint in the mid 40's at will.

Now I struggle like mad to break 240 rpms and I struggle to sprint past 40 mph.

Coincidence? I think not.

In the meantime, I have this soreness problem. My legs are sore.

I got to ride a bit yesterday (20 minutes) and a little today (less than 20 minutes), both times on the trainer. Better than nothing. I think with some serious eating today, some leg rubbing while I work (I brought some Olbas to work and my desk area smells like... Switzerland, I guess), and some nice recovery tonight, I'll be recovered tomorrow.

Just in time to do a warm up ride for the race on Sunday.

Woohoo!