Severe Leg Problem



Synpax

New Member
Sep 11, 2004
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Hi,

I am new to cycling - picking it up to do triathlons. I've recently been doing longer and longer rides. I use to get a little soreness in both legs after riding.

This soreness was in the area on the back of the legs around but not involving the knee itself. Kind of in those muscles/tendons around it. The soreness was exaggerated when going up stairs.

Ok, last week, when I started my long ride, the pain got to be really HORRID in the left leg (it was gone from the right). The pain is most excrutiating going from 9 to 12 - even when I'm not using any pressure - it's just the motion. And it's slightly different in where it is happening - this is strictly just below the knee joint rather than half below half above.

So it was feeling better through the week as I cut back the running and biking this week and went out for my brick today.

The 2 hour run went great. No problems.

But within two miles, the problem was back with a vengeance.

Any suggestions? i think I can run just fine. What is causing this?

My coach suggested the seat might be too high, so I lowered it today but this didn't help.
 
Synpax said:
Hi,

I am new to cycling - picking it up to do triathlons. I've recently been doing longer and longer rides. I use to get a little soreness in both legs after riding.

This soreness was in the area on the back of the legs around but not involving the knee itself. Kind of in those muscles/tendons around it. The soreness was exaggerated when going up stairs.

Ok, last week, when I started my long ride, the pain got to be really HORRID in the left leg (it was gone from the right). The pain is most excrutiating going from 9 to 12 - even when I'm not using any pressure - it's just the motion. And it's slightly different in where it is happening - this is strictly just below the knee joint rather than half below half above.

So it was feeling better through the week as I cut back the running and biking this week and went out for my brick today.

The 2 hour run went great. No problems.

But within two miles, the problem was back with a vengeance.

Any suggestions? i think I can run just fine. What is causing this?

My coach suggested the seat might be too high, so I lowered it today but this didn't help.
It could well be that you need to cut back more for longer. Exercise will make you stronger only if followed by rest, and any injury needs time to heal.
Saddle height could well be relevant, as could it's fore and aft position or tilt. But changing it will not necessarily have an immediate effect.
Start taking it easy now. Use low gears on the bike. Stop when it hurts. Rest between all training sessions. You want to do the tri', so concentrate on swimming for now if that doesn't hurt your knee, that way you will maintain your fitness while the injury is recovering.
 
I used to have a very bad pain in my left leg, in the outside tendon, where it attaches below my knee. The pain would appear around km 55, then get worse for the rest of the ride. Once, I had to ride home using my right leg only, and I couldn't walk for 10 minutes once I got back to my car.

I asked lots of people for help/advice, but to no avail.

A few years ago, I had a cycling accident and I stopped cycling and turned into a couch potato. This probably helped my problem, but once I started cycling again I was very worried about it reappearing.

I finally decided that the cause was my cleats and pedals, and the way they "lock" your feet into a straight "toes pointing forward" position. I have lots of natural out-turn on my left leg (on my right too, but not quite as much). In fact, I have more than I did before because the accident I mentioned above resulted in a shattered thighbone (near my hip), and the doctor's didn't quite put it back together exactly the same way.

To fix my problem, I changed the position of the cleat on my left shoe (I moved it as far right as I could), and I added a couple of washers between my left pedal and the crank. The net result of all this is that my foot is now further away from the crank than before. Since I have a cleat with lots of float in it, this allows my left foot to be at an angle pointing outwards from the pedal. The different cleat position and the washers allows me to turn my foot out more without my heal hitting the crank.

So far this seems to be working pretty well for me. I still get the occasional twinge, but no pain and I can now do multiple long rides in a row.

I don't know if this will help your problem, but I hope so and good luck with it.
 
I've been looking into more professional help. Thanks for your replies.