Ouch! My Butt!

[Brandi]

As some of you know I have a new bike! And i started using clipless pedals last week. (I was chicken to switch over). Well My left butt check and the back of my leg is sore. I had a hard time just sitting on the toilet seat yesterday. It's very sensative to even touch. I have no one to coach me as far as using the clipless so I hope all I have read has helped me to learn. And i know it is a new bike so there is some break in time. But why my one side? Anyone got some tips for me. And should I apply heat or cold to my sore tushy? I am sitting on a heating pad as I type this!

[bikerchick68]

brandi... have you had your bike fitted professionally? considering you have pain only on the one side, it makes me wonder if you have one leg that is slightly shorter than the other... which would mean you would need to shim the cleat of the short leg...

typically pain in the back of the leg indicates too high of a saddle, but if the other leg is ok...? it's difficult with something like this to pinpoint it without seeing you ride... but your butt should not be so sore that you need a heating pad... definitely not normal!

yikes... hopefully someone else can help more... here's a link on fitting...

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm

here's a link to knee pain caused from cycling.. including when it hurts behind the knee...

http://www.cptips.com/knee.htm

hope you can get it fixed soon... nothing worse than hurting from doing what ya love!

[fixedgeargirl]

Brandi, the pain you describe reminds me of what I felt after ACL surgery. My ACL was replaced with a hamstring tendon graft. Though they took the graft from the knee end of the tendon, I felt A LOT of tenderness on the back of thigh/butt transition when I sat on the toilet. So, I wonder if it's a connective tissue issue (say that 5 times fast !).

If you're having that much pain, I wonder if things are inflamed and heat is contraindicated. Maybe an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen would be more appropriate? Is there a *doc* in the house ?

[Brandi]

Oh but the heat feels soooo good. So does anyone think I am just going throug an adjustment period with my new bike? I am taking asprin as we speak.

[Jo-n-NY]

Brandi,
I can't help you with your pain but if it makes you feel any better, I just switched to clippless last year & I have been riding a bike for many, many years. When my husband got them (and brother, and son) I thought they were all nuts until I started reading this board. Then found I was the nuts one, well more like chicken.

Anyway, I am hoping that this year clipping out will be more automatic than last year.

I hope you pain goes away soon and someone on the board here will know why it happened.

~ JoAnn

[mellic]

I had some muscular soreness in my thigh/bum when I first got serious about cycling. I had someone assess my cycling action and it was noticed that I had one leg that internally rotated through the pedalling motion. My cleat angle was then adjusted slightly outwards on this leg which allowed me to pedal without internally rotating so much. It did take me a little while to adjust to this new position but it did eliminate the muscle problems I was experiencing in my upper leg.

I would get someone to ride behind you and take a good look at what your hips, knees and ankles are doing when you pedal.

[Running Mommy]

OUCH! Hopefully it's not the saddle!
But you may want to have a good bike fitter look at your position. One of my cleats was positioned wrong and I had no clue. I was having terrible knee pain. He moved my cleat and I was golden. If you can't find one out there I can try to hook you up w/ Robin Oswald from the trinewbies forum. She lives in SLO and is a pro triathlete/coach. I don't know what she knows about bike fitting, but she could probably help you- or know someone who could...
Good luck! I hate bike related pain! I want to get on my bike and enjoy the ride!

[Brandi]

Wow, that might be it. I noticed it seemed like my feet were turning in. i thought that it was just me. My dh just told me he would adjust them and he was sorry he didn't tell me about them being able to adjust them. Thanks for the tip!