Anathema
07-05-2008, 08:51 PM
Hi, all. This is my first post, though I’ve been lurking a while. I bought a used mountain bike (Trek 4500 WSD) last fall, thinking I might lose some weight. Last time I’d been on a bike was probably 1995 or so, and I had really enjoyed it back then, but was never serious about cycling; I gave up riding after a couple too many narrow incidents with motorists left me feeling I was pushing my luck with the bike.
Anyway, after buying the bike last fall, I didn’t ride it all winter. I got it out briefly last spring, but it was a really windy and cold spring, so I started waiting for the weather to be right. It finally hit me a couple of weeks ago that now that the wind had subsided a bit, it’s too hot, and once that’s passed, it’ll probably be winter again. So, now I’m done waiting for perfect weather, and am committed to riding while the days are long enough.
I’ve tooled around my neighborhood a bit, then took my first real ride last weekend. My town has a bike trail that connects to the town where I work and I’m considering commuting. It’s only about a 15 mile ride. Last Sunday, I started at the trailhead about ten miles from my office and rode round trip from there. I enjoyed the trip, but my left side went nearly completely numb during the course of my ride. As soon as I got back to the TH and was off the bike, I regained sensation, and in a couple of hours, my body was craving riding again; I felt I could have gone much further if it hadn’t been for the numb sensation. I took that as a good sign and thought maybe the bike could be better adjusted to prevent the numbness. I went to my LBS and paid to have it fitted. The guy who worked with me took a bunch of measurements and said I’d gotten incredibly lucky with the size of the frame and that the current setup was nearly perfectly adjusted to me; we made only a small adjustment to the saddle (shifted it back a bit and aimed the nose slightly down). He gave me some pointers about posture and positioning (some of it seems good, some didn’t make any sense to me at all, and some I think absolutely wrong for me), and told me the problem with the numbness was probably that I’m sitting on a cluster of nerves that run down the groin.
Yesterday, I started the same ride that I’d done last weekend. For the first couple of miles, I found I was slipping around and having to re-settle myself on the saddle, but other than that, everything felt great. At about the fifth mile, I started going numb again, but this week, by mile six, the inside of my left ankle and the top of the foot were in excruciating pain. It felt at first like it might have been cramping; relaxing my foot seemed to help a little, but not enough and not for long. By the time I got back to my car, I felt like I wanted to die. It felt like I've strained my ankle. The pain continued all through last night. I woke up this morning feeling lame and took today off from trying to ride.
Now I’m scared to get back on the bike. Does anyone have any ideas what can be causing this? Could a different saddle correct it?
Anyway, after buying the bike last fall, I didn’t ride it all winter. I got it out briefly last spring, but it was a really windy and cold spring, so I started waiting for the weather to be right. It finally hit me a couple of weeks ago that now that the wind had subsided a bit, it’s too hot, and once that’s passed, it’ll probably be winter again. So, now I’m done waiting for perfect weather, and am committed to riding while the days are long enough.
I’ve tooled around my neighborhood a bit, then took my first real ride last weekend. My town has a bike trail that connects to the town where I work and I’m considering commuting. It’s only about a 15 mile ride. Last Sunday, I started at the trailhead about ten miles from my office and rode round trip from there. I enjoyed the trip, but my left side went nearly completely numb during the course of my ride. As soon as I got back to the TH and was off the bike, I regained sensation, and in a couple of hours, my body was craving riding again; I felt I could have gone much further if it hadn’t been for the numb sensation. I took that as a good sign and thought maybe the bike could be better adjusted to prevent the numbness. I went to my LBS and paid to have it fitted. The guy who worked with me took a bunch of measurements and said I’d gotten incredibly lucky with the size of the frame and that the current setup was nearly perfectly adjusted to me; we made only a small adjustment to the saddle (shifted it back a bit and aimed the nose slightly down). He gave me some pointers about posture and positioning (some of it seems good, some didn’t make any sense to me at all, and some I think absolutely wrong for me), and told me the problem with the numbness was probably that I’m sitting on a cluster of nerves that run down the groin.
Yesterday, I started the same ride that I’d done last weekend. For the first couple of miles, I found I was slipping around and having to re-settle myself on the saddle, but other than that, everything felt great. At about the fifth mile, I started going numb again, but this week, by mile six, the inside of my left ankle and the top of the foot were in excruciating pain. It felt at first like it might have been cramping; relaxing my foot seemed to help a little, but not enough and not for long. By the time I got back to my car, I felt like I wanted to die. It felt like I've strained my ankle. The pain continued all through last night. I woke up this morning feeling lame and took today off from trying to ride.
Now I’m scared to get back on the bike. Does anyone have any ideas what can be causing this? Could a different saddle correct it?