While I enjoy reading and occasionally posting on this site daily, and some times alluding to cycling feats, I must confess to being a fraud.
For the last 3-4 years my forays on the bike have been largely restricted to a couple of miles with my young daughters, due in part to sloth, but primarily due to arthritis in my left knee caused by a childhood and early adolescence filled with skiing, rugby and squash.
Over Christmas I visited a friend I hadn't seen for many years, and he has really got the cycling bug badly. He recalled us cycling together when we were younger and asked about my current activity. When in comparison to his 2013 total of 6700 miles (and a further 3000 on the turbo!) I proffered a total of probably 2-300, he was appalled. When I explained about the knees, he asked about whether I’d returned to the bike shop who set the bike up when I bought it and checked the fit, but I had to confess that this was a Ride2Work purchase from Halfords (since significantly upgraded) and any fitting was done by me on a trial and error basis.
The conversation drifted off onto other matters, but a couple of weeks later I received through the post from him a voucher for a BikeFit appointment at my LBS. Full of scepticism I attended, to find that I had pretty much everything set up wrongly on the bike.
Still not believing that this was going to make any real difference and expecting that as usual I would be hobbling for a few days, I set off for a tentative ride 10 mile ride. In terms of pain the following day, nothing, nada, zip.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been gradually building up and at the weekend did 32 miles including 2 ascents of Box Hill, and still am experiencing no adverse effects. Not exactly the stuff of TDF, but I’m back to enjoying my cycling and looking to build the mileage as we go into summer.
Therefore it may be that over time you’ve come to regard some aches and pain after cycling as being a sign of oncoming decrepitude, but it might also be that your bike doesn’t fit you properly. I recommend that you get it checked out. It’s transformed my enjoyment of cycling!
For the last 3-4 years my forays on the bike have been largely restricted to a couple of miles with my young daughters, due in part to sloth, but primarily due to arthritis in my left knee caused by a childhood and early adolescence filled with skiing, rugby and squash.
Over Christmas I visited a friend I hadn't seen for many years, and he has really got the cycling bug badly. He recalled us cycling together when we were younger and asked about my current activity. When in comparison to his 2013 total of 6700 miles (and a further 3000 on the turbo!) I proffered a total of probably 2-300, he was appalled. When I explained about the knees, he asked about whether I’d returned to the bike shop who set the bike up when I bought it and checked the fit, but I had to confess that this was a Ride2Work purchase from Halfords (since significantly upgraded) and any fitting was done by me on a trial and error basis.
The conversation drifted off onto other matters, but a couple of weeks later I received through the post from him a voucher for a BikeFit appointment at my LBS. Full of scepticism I attended, to find that I had pretty much everything set up wrongly on the bike.
Still not believing that this was going to make any real difference and expecting that as usual I would be hobbling for a few days, I set off for a tentative ride 10 mile ride. In terms of pain the following day, nothing, nada, zip.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been gradually building up and at the weekend did 32 miles including 2 ascents of Box Hill, and still am experiencing no adverse effects. Not exactly the stuff of TDF, but I’m back to enjoying my cycling and looking to build the mileage as we go into summer.
Therefore it may be that over time you’ve come to regard some aches and pain after cycling as being a sign of oncoming decrepitude, but it might also be that your bike doesn’t fit you properly. I recommend that you get it checked out. It’s transformed my enjoyment of cycling!
