Recovery Ride & hip flexor

[Catrin]

I took my first ride in 8 days this afternoon! Normally I would have found it boring as I found the flattest roads I could find and stayed on them - but only for 12 miles - the purpose was to start testing this hamstring, and it seemed to do fine. I did ice it afterwards. I forced myself to ride easy, no hammering, and it was hard to avoid the alluring call of the hills. But I did resist the call! This was my shortest ride in months...but I didn't want to overdo it my first ride back on the bike.

12 miles in 50 minutes and no pain I could feel my hamstring wanting to tighten up, and it was a little warm afterwards with a small amount of inflammation but nothing like it WAS before my 8 days off the bike. I did ice when I got home and took ibuprofen before the ride.

Hip flexor on one leg wanted to get a little sore at the end - but my saddle was just raised yesterday so that is likely all that is - my height is slowly getting up to where it should be. Just the one leg though, the same one with the hamstring injury, and it is my "shortest" leg, though there isn't much difference.

So tomorrow, depending on how it does between now and then, will ride further and go to a different route. There are hills in that route - but not steep - more like long continuous inclines but are not steep at all. You know they are there though, so will be a good test. There was a hill or two in today's route and my leg did fine

[WindingRoad]

Glad to hear you are out and about

[warneral]

that's great! I'm glad it went well

[Catrin]

The best part is that there has been no pain since I came home and very few signs of inflammation. Hoping to bump it up to 20 miles tomorrow, but we will see Last Saturday the hamstring would hurt when I wasn't even moving, just sitting or lying down so I figure I can still re-injure it pretty easily if I am not careful.

I can certainly tell the difference in how my body feels and how I handle stress when I am not getting a minimum of 100 miles a week...spinning helps with that but I had to cut out pretty much all cardiovascular activity for a solid week and I certainly noticed the difference! Of course, the three weeks BEFORE that I wasn't getting those miles either - but at least I was getting something...

[KnottedYet]

Last Saturday the hamstring would hurt when I wasn't even moving, just sitting or lying down

Bet you $50 TE gift card all this hamstring/hip flexor crap is coming from a fricked up disc in your low back.

[Catrin]

Bet you $50 TE gift card all this hamstring/hip flexor crap is coming from a fricked up disc in your low back.

I've no lower back pain/stiffness/discomfort - ever...is there something that I can do to determine if I do have a disc problem?

I strength-train 2-3 times a week and I generally start with deadlifts because of my hands. The weight I can deadlift is limited by my grip problem, so this is always first before lifting other things.

There was a period of a couple of weeks - right before this happened - when my schedule was really tight and I started right into lifting after next to no warm-up. I only did that a couple of times and have stopped that dangerous behavior - and of course deadlifting targets the hammies among other things.