Legs rebel after rest days

[HUMP DIESEL]

Have any of you posters who are on training plans have issues with your legs rebelling against you on rest days? I finished up a three week block this past Saturday with a good 93 mile ride with 8,000 feet of climbing early in the ride. Legs felt great all day and PM'd some of the local climbs. I had asked for a rest day on Sunday to spend time with the family and it corresponded with a lighter week. Sunday I rested, ate lunch with the family and also watched a movie, nice and relaxed all day. Monday was another rest day, but I had work, which is sitting behind a desk. Tuesday was not a rest day, but an easy spin. Walking to the car at the end of the day, my left quad started to tighten up on me. It was not a lurching cramp like you would typically get, but a gradual tightening that ends up messing up my gate. I had to stop a couple of time walking to the car to stretch the muscle. On the way home the leg felt really weird. I got on the bike and did not have problems with cramping on the bike. I was at a low wattage just spinning. Now today, the leg just feel dead, I have some tenderness around the IT band area where it crosses the trocantor, like the bura sac there is a little bruised or something. Really is a weird feeling and I have had it happen before.

Have any of you guys or gals experienced this before? Is it due to the muscle not being activated for a couple of days? Would it be beneficial when I get a couple of days like this each month to have a massage scheduled?

Could it be a blood flow issue?

HUMP

[devinci]

hard to tell

I doubt its related to the muscle not being activated as you had a gentle spin.

I have never experienced this, but I know I feel slugish after one or two rest days.

It could be age related too. How old are you? I guess a good massage would be very good but your issue could be caused by a number of things.

[Rick]

Just a theory, but judging from my personal observations of soreness after weightlifting I strongly suspect that it really takes a lot longer to fully recover from a truly hard workout than most of us realize.....like a full week.
That is why it is hard to balance intensity/rest/weight. During that week you are ravenously hungry!!!

Very light exercise is generally regarded as better for recovery than "inactivity".

[HUMP DIESEL]

hard to tell

I doubt its related to the muscle not being activated as you had a gentle spin.

I have never experienced this, but I know I feel slugish after one or two rest days.

It could be age related too. How old are you? I guess a good massage would be very good but your issue could be caused by a number of things.

It actually happened before the spin. I am 37.

HUMP

[devinci]

I am not a physical therapist or anything, but if it happens regularly, I'd see someone qualified to adress such an issue.

If it has a bruise feeling arround the joint sturctures I'd also see someone.

[CoachPotatoBilly]

I have some tenderness around the IT band area where it crosses the trocantor, like the bura sac there is a little bruised or something. Really is a weird feeling and I have had it happen before.

Have any of you guys or gals experienced this before? Is it due to the muscle not being activated for a couple of days? Would it be beneficial when I get a couple of days like this each month to have a massage scheduled?

Could it be a blood flow issue?

HUMP

**** The orthopedic symptoms you describe could be a number of things. It could simply be greater trochanteric bursitis from your long ride coupled with sitting for extended periods at work with your hip flexors and other muscles in a shortened position. If it is simple stiffness, a good massage therapist can break up a lot of the adhesions in the area and make you feel like superman again. A good massage therapist can feel and mitigate many kinds of muscle stiffness with a variety of techniques.

It could also be something a bit more complex like an issue of instability in the foot from your hard climbing ride causing a problem higher on the kinetic chain. A collapsing arch, worn cleat or shoe with inadequate support or other such issue can force the foot into a bit more forefoot valgus than you might be used to and thus throwing off the normal trajectory of the leg enough to stress the hip at the trochanter area.. Also glute activation issues in the hip, or other hip stabilizer problems can cause symptoms as you describe.

Since you mentioned your age - it is also possible you have some kind of FAI issue (femoral acetabular impingement) - either pincer, cam, or mixed type developing or simply manifesting itself clinically now for whatever reason - position on the bike, your body forming the impingement through bone remodeling at the femoral/acetabular junction, etc..

It could also be a blood flow issue, a disk or other back nerve problem (degenerative disk disease, ankylosing spondylitis, etc..). Although exceedingly unlikely - it could also be an aseptic avascular necrosis type issue from a hard fall, cartilage damage, etc.. leading to FAI described above... like what a certain former TDF winner that was stripped of his title had.

Obviously, the info above is worth what you paid for it so if your symptoms do not improve, and none of the equipment issues above relate to your situation - please consult with an orthopedist. There are a number of simple tests that can be done in a few minutes to rule out some of the above, and at least narrow down the problem.

If the affected leg does not feel better with rest, or the problem starts to slowly get worse with longer and longer recovery between hard rides being needed, etc.. It might be worthwhile to have a doppler type scan on the blood vessels in the hip area to rule out scar or other odd growth in the leg arteries, and/or a scanogram to rule out FAI and other possible issues that happen in cyclists due to the nature of the activity - especially more radical positioning on the bike with tight angles in parts of the hip, etc..

Sorry for the detail, and I hope you figure this issue out in a way that allows you to continue riding strongly and competing successfully at the level you have become accustomed.

Billy

[HUMP DIESEL]

Billy, thanks for that extended reply, lots of things there that I had not even thought about. My first and most obvious is to look at my interaction with the bike. We know from others that the body can adapt to the wrong position over time and then once that time is given for the muscle to relax, that is when you feel and see issues.

I know that I have a left leg length difference (shorter), so I shimmed the leg to compensate and felt more solid on the bike last night even setting some 30s PR efforts. The leg feels better today, but I am also going to check in with the massage therapist for when I have these rest days in front of a regen week. That way I can let her work out some of the things I am feeling.

I also did go down failry hard on my left side in a crash some years back, and that is where I get that feeling of tenderness near or at the trocantor.

HUMP