when are my legs going to quit hurting?

[Thorn]

As a wise woman once said...."I can sit on my couch and hurt or I can ride, be active and hurt. I'll take the latter"

While there might be something more to the aches and pains (and only you can decide that), as you push and get better, you're bound to have days when you ache. But, at my age, I assume there always be some. At least when I'm riding I can say it is because I did something to make me healthier.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Assuming you are talking about sore muscles here, and not joint pains etc....

I LOVE when my leg muscles are sore- because it indicates to me that I have pushed them again a bit further than they were built up to deal with. Sore muscles to me mean that when I go to sleep that night, my legs will be building MORE new muscle to compensate for what I am asking them to do.
Maybe I'm nuts, but to me sore leg muscles mean bigger muscles are going to be built over the next couple of days. I see it as a good sign that I am pushing my limit upwards and not just staying on a plateau.

[mimitabby]

Thanks for all your wisdom. Fredwina, I watch your stats, you're a darn good rider.
Lisa, at first that was my thought too, um, muscle pain, I'm growing. now it's ALL RIGHT ALREADY!

it didn't help that our club ride included two young bucks who sped up the whole pace...

[SadieKate]

Mimi, on any of your commuting days do you ride really, really stupidly and boringly slow? At the end of Saturday's ride, I essentially time-trialed for 25 miles. I put out a big effort. I got on the bike Sunday (last) night and my hamstrings were killing me. I rode 13 miles at a "really, really stupidly and boringly slow" pace. 8 miles into it my legs felt fabulous and I could have put in a lot more miles. Today they feel great, but if I had ridden with more intensity Sunday I would neither have built more muscle nor given my legs any kind of recovery and they would have been sore.

Sore legs every day for me would mean I'm not varying what I do enough. Sore legs every day do not build muscle. Sore legs can also be that you are not warming up properply. An 8-12 mile commute at our, ahem, age is going to mostly be warm-up. And a 7-day riding week without really focusing on "really, really stupidly and boringly slow" recovery rides is going to kill anyone's legs, especially if you don't plan a serious taper week.

[mimitabby]

the problem with my going home commute is a stupid hill. If i go any slower on the hill i'm going to have to walk and i don't wanna walk!

I can do stupid slow rides around my house (sort of, again, hills) but not to get home from work. going to work i barely warm up.

[SadieKate]

What does a hill have to do with it? You can ride recovery on hills. You ride only as fast as you need in order to stay upright (3 miles an hour maybe) and ride as slow as you can the rest of the time. So what if you don't get warmed up riding to work. You will do more damage if you push. At 8-10 miles, I wouldn't expect to be warmed up until I rode up to the office door.

If you want to ride with the club and do intense rides both Saturday and Sun, and push at their pace, you have to ride recovery the rest of the time. Mimi, even very experienced and very strong, fit riders cannot ride 7 days a week at intensity. You are too new to this effort level to push this hard, and I'm only saying it because I'm no spring chicken either, it's going to take longer to get strong and fit. Recovery is even more important for us. We just don't spring back like we used it.

If you don't want your legs to hurt quit abusing them day in and day out.

[mimitabby]

SadieKate,
thank you. I will try that tomorrow.