When to push...

I've been nursing a quad and hamstring for the last two weeks - seemingly related to pushing too hard and too far when I switched to clipless.

The hamstring seems to be fine now, thankfully, but today I went out intending on a 3 hour ride, but at about 1.5 hours my quad started aching. It was quite windy, and I noted my average heart-rate for the ride was 134. It is normally about 122-126 for most rides. That indicates how windy it was. There were a couple of steep hills in that 1.5 hours but not many.

I keep forgetting to stretch my poor abused quads at the end of my ride - I forget until 2 hours later - which doesn't help!

So I guess my question is this - there are times when we should push through soreness and so forth, and times when we shouldn't. How do you tell the difference? As it wasn't actually painful but just aching I think I could have pushed it for at least a few more miles without harm, but with the wind sucking the life out of me like it was...it was a good excuse to stop :o

My general tendency is to just ignore pain and keep on going - but am trying to be a little wiser with my soon to be 51-year old muscles and joints. This has been a great year for me, and I don't want to cap my first year cycling with an over-use injury :eek: :rolleyes:

I'm not a health care professional but I do have an overuse injury on my achilles tendon I have been nursing for seven months. I just kept pushing and come to find out I didn't give myself enough down time so I rode hard enough to really hurt myself. I would take it slow and talk to a doctor, coach ,or physical therapist so you don't end up off your bike.

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Originally Posted by jelee1311

I'm not a health care professional but I do have an overuse injury on my achilles tendon I have been nursing for seven months. I just kept pushing and come to find out I didn't give myself enough down time so I rode hard enough to really hurt myself. I would take it slow and talk to a doctor, coach,or physical therapist so you don't end up off your bike.

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Good point - it IS better each time - and I am taking a break from my long rides until this resolves so I am just going out there and spinning relatively easily for about 20 miles rather than 65 or 70. It is frustrating. Of course there is one experiment I can try to see if it is really related to my being clipless...and that is to go for a ride and use the platform side...

Today was the least amount of discomfort in the last two weeks - just a little aching in a specific spot on the outside of my thigh - two weeks ago it was like little aliens were trying to erupt from my quad (to steal a line Cataboo's post) for the last 10 miles of my ride.

what I've always heard is, it's ok to work out with an injury as long as it isn't affecting your form. Once you have to adapt because of it, time to either rest until it heals or see someone who can make it heal faster.

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Originally Posted by jessmarimba

what I've always heard is, it's ok to work out with an injury as long as it isn't affecting your form. Once you have to adapt because of it, time to either rest until it heals or see someone who can make it heal faster.

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Thanks - this helps!