Dead Leg

[mark_e_smith]

I've been racing mt bikes since I was 15 (I'm 28 now), most of those years at the expert level. I've always had a strength discrepancy between my left and right legs, with the right leg taking over in race situations. For the past few years I've been trying to correct this in the off season by doing more reps on that side in the gym and occasional left leg pedaling. I always start out the season with both legs feeling good, but about halfway through my left starts pedaling "squares", fatiguing a lot sooner than the right. Usually some rest and base miles can get me through the rest of the season.

Well to make a long story short, I think I went too far this year. I was doing tons of long, high resistance TT's, probably before I was recovered from the weekends' race. I could feel my left leg "giving out", so I quit doing them. I kept racing though, hoping it would go away with some easy miles during the week. Now at the end of the year I have this constant "dead" feeling in my leg, and my downstroke is uncontrollable. My heel drops down and it's tough to kick over the top. The weird thing is I feel fine overall, and my right leg is as strong as ever. I'm wondering if all those 80 rpm TT's just wore out my leg.

So it's been about 3 months of this and I just rode after a 2 week break, and it's still a problem. I'm worried I've done permanent damage and won't be able to compete any more.

Has anyone heard of someone with a similar problem? Any advice? Thanks in advance.

-Mike

 

[TiLee]

I've been racing mt bikes since I was 15 (I'm 28 now), most of those years at the expert level. I've always had a strength discrepancy between my left and right legs, with the right leg taking over in race situations. For the past few years I've been trying to correct this in the off season by doing more reps on that side in the gym and occasional left leg pedaling. I always start out the season with both legs feeling good, but about halfway through my left starts pedaling "squares", fatiguing a lot sooner than the right. Usually some rest and base miles can get me through the rest of the season.

Well to make a long story short, I think I went too far this year. I was doing tons of long, high resistance TT's, probably before I was recovered from the weekends' race. I could feel my left leg "giving out", so I quit doing them. I kept racing though, hoping it would go away with some easy miles during the week. Now at the end of the year I have this constant "dead" feeling in my leg, and my downstroke is uncontrollable. My heel drops down and it's tough to kick over the top. The weird thing is I feel fine overall, and my right leg is as strong as ever. I'm wondering if all those 80 rpm TT's just wore out my leg.

So it's been about 3 months of this and I just rode after a 2 week break, and it's still a problem. I'm worried I've done permanent damage and won't be able to compete any more.

Has anyone heard of someone with a similar problem? Any advice? Thanks in advance.

-Mike

I have the same problem except the discrepency manifests itself more during the early/late season rather than the summer months. I suspect back/hip/leg lenth alignment issues are the root cause. I have not yet found the solution.

 

[mark_e_smith]

Yeah, I actually looked into that this season, had a bike fit done. I had some Lemond wedges put under my cleats to angle my feet out, but eventually I just bought the Specialized body geometry shoes that do the same thing.

I think the problem is so old I have just built up a lot more muscle on my right side to compensate, and maybe this year I tried to make up for 10 years of lopsided pedaling in one season. I've also snowboarded for a long time, and you put a lot of weight on you back leg, especially in deep snow.

It's funny because my friends make fun of the way I lean to the right while I'm riding, especially on a hammer ride.