Ongoing muscular pain despite rest on big biking trip

Hello,
First of all -- WOW! You're the first girl biker I'm writting to who did so much!
This is quite amazing cause I haven't met many women bikers.

Anyway -- I'm a biker myself. Not that 'strong & intense' as you but I can manage. By bike I've been to Croatia, Armenia and Georgia from Poland (in Poland of course also:)).
I usually don't have any muscule problems and if I do they basically vanish after few days. But when I do -- I try to eat food with a lot of magnesium and jellies and do some relaxing muscule streching (nothing fancy, just some squats etc.)
It maybe sounds stupid but it works for me. I'd advise you to head to the doctor if the pain wouldn't stop.

Take care! :)
Marzena

After long periods of cycling I find things like walking, particularly up and downstairs to be difficult.

My guess is that you have been doing only one sort of exercise and your body is now coming out of that. Ten days seems a long time, so maybe it's not that, but that is my suggestion.

You don't say if you have been back on your bike and how it is. That is probably the most important thing if on a cycling trip.

My recommendation to anyone doing a long cycling trip is to try and get varied exercise. Stretching is good, but I try to have a decent walk every day.

Im guessing you just cycle hard, camp and cycle hard. Camping can't be that good as you spend most of your time on your knees. So try to vary your exercise.

Good luck, any health problems are a real worry, even if not serious, when on a long trip.

Pain is a gift....it is the bodies way of telling you something is not right. It is time after 10 days to seek out a medical proffessional.

Simon gives good advice but only if you know there is nothing more sinister going on. If you go to a medical proffessional and he/she reasures you that nothing is wrong it will be money well spent, if he/she tells you something is not right because of xyz it will also be money well spent.

Hi Isabelle. Exactly the same thing happened to me after a 30,000 km ride. It was 2 weeks after I had stopped riding. A doctor gave me a strong painkiller and the pain was gone after 2 days. I was back on the bike immediately and haven't had that problem again. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Keith

Hi Isabella

I'm on the same route as you, I'm currently in Aktau, Kazakhstan and head off to Uzbekistan tomorrow. I've suffered similar problems to you and my experience is this.

Generally after I've been going for sometime without a rest day, 10-14 days, when I do stop it's generally the 2 & 3rd day I really start to stiffen up. That's if I stop for that length of time. For me this is normal and I'm used to it, there's a difference between muscle ache and muscle pain, and as I sportive person you'll know the difference, you'll know your body better than anyone. If you're suffering pain I'd go to the doctors, if it's ache, even severe ache, pop a few anti-inflamitories like Ibu-Profen and see how you get on with those. I generally find getting back on the road and starting slow and warming up to cycling again is all I need to do.

That's my experience.

John

how's your diet? could you be missing something essential? what's available
to you during your rides? i tend to get a little sore and miserable after a month
of nothing but noodle soup. getting enough salt and potassium?

what have you been doing for the past 10 days? any cycling? i sometimes find
doing the exercise associated with the pain less intensive helps. lie around a
week after a marathon, and the pain never goes away, but go for an easy job
after a couple days rest and most of the pain is gone.

Some people find that daily muscle stretching exercises help limit the risk of heavily used muscles tightening up and causing pain.

After long periods of cycling I find things like walking, particularly up and downstairs to be difficult.

I am very happy to hear that I am not alone experiencing that.

You can try changing your routine to cycling shorter distances and walking about wherever you wind up instead of spending so long on the bike every day. This also helps minimize tiring exposure to the elements (sun especially). Personally, an early morning start with a mid-morning stop was always my favourite routine. Another thing is be careful about varying the temperature of your muscles ... make sure you are sleeping out of wind (eg. air conditioning draft). Good luck and have a great trip!