After doing a hilly century over Memorial Day followed a week later by a flat metric, I had a couple bad weeks of pain and numbness in the left side of my butt and upper thigh. I would describe the pain as burning followed by numbness. It hurt to sit for long stretches of time, and it would get particularly bad about 10-15 miles into most, though not all, rides. I assumed that my sciatic nerve was involved in some way, which of course worried me. Before I had a chance to go to the doctor, I found relief by stretching my piriformis muscle. I concentrated on it during my regular yoga classes and did a lot of stretching before, during and after rides. The worst of the pain is now gone. I would note, ironically, that I have a Terry Butterfly Tri Gel saddle. I've been riding it w/o incident for about a year now, so I think my pain was caused by doing a ride that was hard on my back followed by a ride where I sat in a static position on my bike for long stretches of time. I need to remember to move around a bit more during long, flat rides.

I found the following site to be helpful for understanding what can cause sciatic nerve issues and for a list of stretches/exercises: http://www.spine-health.com.


Kate