Pain Thresholds

The movie “24 Solo” gives a good view into that.

This is a good thread to talk about for me right now. Today is a “rest day” for me… only 10 miles on the cargo bike… after some really hard efforts of the last 5 days. Basically on the ride home from last night’s mountain bike ride my legs said “When” in a big way.

Every day on the bicycle at any level is challenging. When you’re pushing your capabilities a little on the bike, and getting on to do it again the next day, it all begins to accumulate. What makes it possible for me is a good recovery routine. Some of this might be overkill for y’all, but I’m gonna share it because a lot of what I say applies to folks who are riding daily at any level.

Have Reasonable Expectations: It’s good to have days where you push your limits. Just understand that when you do so, you need to have some time where you recover from that. Linking days together where you’re pushing yourself is a GREAT way to train and become stronger. Just realize that you also have to rest after linking up 2, 3, 4 or more hard days on the bike. The only way to know that you can push hard for more than a day at a time is to practice doing so. The only way to keep doing it is to recover after these big efforts. If you do it once and never go back to do it again, then you’re not really gaining any benefit.

Rest days are important: You don’t have to be completely off the bike to have a rest day. Just understand that there are days where you’re going to go really easy. Make sure you have 1 or 2 each week. Your mind needs the rest too. When the going gets tough, it is usually the mind that bucks up and pushes the muscles through… or not if you’re not truly rested. See the above comments about realistic expectations.

Post-ride Recovery: I’ve written about my post-ride routine many times in different threads. I’ll keep it simple. It involves a few basic principles that y’all can apply to your own riding.

• Refuel: Recovery drink and lean protein in the first 30 minutes after riding. I chocolate milk. Timing is VERY important. 1 glass of chocolate milk or recover drink makes a huge difference.
• Stretching: Do it. It helps a LOT.
• Compression: I LOVE my compression socks and tights. I use 2XU stuff. There are other brands. Buy locally and get fit by a professional. Tri360 and Freshbikes can help you out there.

Morning Evaluation: If you’re waking up tired and with dogged legs, then it is a sign that you need to recover a bit. You can warm your legs up and push through, but remember that when you wake up tired, that means the clock is ticking and you’re going to need to have some recovery time in your near future. Listen to your body. I go the extra step of taking my waking pulse. When it begins to be elevated in the mornings, I know that I’m overdoing it and need to back things off.

Adjust and Adapt: Just because you plan a ride for the day doesn’t mean you must do it. Shorten your route. Ease up your effort. Adjust and be flexible. Live to ride another day! Remember, this is supposed to be fun.

Hope that helps a little. Sorry to drone on about this stuff so much.

Love,

Dirt.

My weakness is getting colds/flu/strep throat. I hate being sick with a passion. Bad bruise, cut, etc, eh, I just power on. Shoot, I don’t even take novicaine when I get a filling or fillings plural. I tell the dentist if it’s less than 15 seconds, I’ll do it sans pain meds. A friend (who was S-ops for a while in military) told me something I try to remember–that 90% of pain is mental. Then again, I don’t have near the strength or cycling experience of someone like Dirt, so I would take his recommendations there.

@Terpfan 48982 wrote:

A friend (who was S-ops for a while in military) told me something I try to remember–that 90% of pain is mental. Then again, I don’t have near the strength or cycling experience of someone like Dirt, so I would take his recommendations there.

There’s a difference between pain and painful exhaustedness though right? Like pushing through screaming legs to get the KOM on a hill is pain, and something one can push through if they’re strong enough i.e. any mountain top or sprint stage winner of a grand tour. That’s different than waking up with an aching body, tired legs and flagging motivation. That’s more like over training and pushing through isn’t going to give you very different results.

Dickie, maybe you should try to mix in another form of physical exertion to mix up your routine a bit? Maybe that would get you and your muscles a little more excited for rides. You’d probably have to reduce mileage though too. Anyway, I do a lot of ashtanga yoga which helps a lot with flexibility and overall body fitness where cycling focuses very much on just the legs. The variety of poses and glimpsing the advanced yogis crazy contortions keeps it interesting and there are a thousand ways to inflict pain on yourself in a yoga class, most of it good. But you also learn quickly what good pain is and how to avoid bad pain, which is something you can apply to other activities.

As for pain, I don’t think I’m great with it. I could never race or do 110% efforts as routine like real athletes do.

@Dickie 48969 wrote:

We all have different thresholds of pain. Example: I can deal with bone breaks/fractures, cuts, etc no problem, but give me a tummy ache and I’m a mess…

And yes, you all have free reign to call me names… one area of pain I can take is criticism!

Cheers

I’m only going to criticize you for using the word “tummy.” The only acceptable terms for a hard man are “gut” and “crap factory.”

@ShawnoftheDread 48995 wrote:

I’m only going to criticize you for using the word “tummy.” The only acceptable terms for a hard man are “gut” and “crap factory.”

or Mash Tun.

@Dickie 48969 wrote:

We all have different thresholds of pain. Example: I can deal with bone breaks/fractures, cuts, etc no problem, but give me a tummy ache and I’m a mess. The sight of blood makes my wife’s knees buckle, but she will go on motoring with sever stomach pains that would cripple me. Given that cyclists often use the term “suffering” to define their experiences I wondered how we quantify this or even know what suffering really is? One persons pain might not even register on another’s radar… The reason I bring this up is simple, more than ever before my legs are just not recovering like they used to. Every day on the bike is a struggle, even as my miles increase I find myself having far more bad days then good. I have tried many things from drinking more water, massages, bike position, better diet, easy days, etc but have yet to find the solution. The next step is to meet with my cardiologist to see just how much my heart defect is effecting my legs, but short of that perhaps I am just a wuss? How do you know? I rarely hear any of you talking about pain or struggling on the bike, do you just embrace it or do you not feel it at all? Is it taboo to talk about the pain, or is it part of the joy?

And yes, you all have free reign to call me names… one area of pain I can take is criticism!

Cheers

The pain that I cannot take, that makes me feel sick to my stomach is the pain that is actually causing damage to my body. Breaks, tears, severe sprains where actual tissue damage is occurring are the pains I cannot ignore. Soreness, burning legs, aching lungs…these I can take to a point.

I also have a pretty low threshold for pain, but I have heard of research lately that should give those with low pain tolerance reason to be glad. It has been found that people who can tolerate the most pain tend to be less sensitive to problems with their health, tend to ignore them and can actually have higher probability for more serious problems down the road.

I’m not sure what the solution will be for you, but seeing the doctor is probably a wise precaution. As you describe it, it also sounds as if more rest days will probably help. Have you ever taken a full week or even longer completely off the bike? If your monthly mileage is high, then taking a week off can be awesome; you cannot believe how good and strong you will feel that first day back.

And on a side note I would recommend a massager called “The Stick” for really ironing out those sore, knotted muscles.

@creadinger 48993 wrote:

There’s a difference between pain and painful exhaustedness though right? Like pushing through screaming legs to get the KOM on a hill is pain, and something one can push through if they’re strong enough i.e. any mountain top or sprint stage winner of a grand tour. That’s different than waking up with an aching body, tired legs and flagging motivation. That’s more like over training and pushing through isn’t going to give you very different results.

Dickie, maybe you should try to mix in another form of physical exertion to mix up your routine a bit? Maybe that would get you and your muscles a little more excited for rides. You’d probably have to reduce mileage though too. Anyway, I do a lot of ashtanga yoga which helps a lot with flexibility and overall body fitness where cycling focuses very much on just the legs. The variety of poses and glimpsing the advanced yogis crazy contortions keeps it interesting and there are a thousand ways to inflict pain on yourself in a yoga class, most of it good. But you also learn quickly what good pain is and how to avoid bad pain, which is something you can apply to other activities.

As for pain, I don’t think I’m great with it. I could never race or do 110% efforts as routine like real athletes do.

I really need to do this myself. Besides not getting in enough miles over the winter, I’ve also been a lot less flexible lately, and weak in the upper body. I think yoga (or maybe even a martial art like Aikido) may be the answer for me, with a possible combination of some weight training. Ideally I’d like to find a yoga style that combines both of these if possible. Would you recommend Ashtanga for this? Also, which studio do you attend?

As the husband of an acupuncturist, the issues of pain, exertion, and moderation come up often, and can be particularly difficult to address with something that one is passionate about. Since I don’t get enough sleep with a young child and wife, and they depend on me to be active and supportive in the few hours I get to spend with them before bedtime, fatigue is not really an option. I’ve noticed that when I ride four or more days per work week, I tend to be a lot more fatigued and spend more time yawning than reading my daughter books. This exact scenario may not apply, but the fundamentals behind it are sound.

Moderation is important in whatever you do and it’s best to listen to your body. I really wanted to ride in to work today, since it’s so beautiful out, but I’ve already ridden in this week M-W and tacked on a few extra miles and some bigger hills with the kid in tow on the trailer. It was mentally difficult for me to chose not to ride this morning, but I know that it will be better for me in the long term. I’ll have more energy for my family and any chance to ride over the weekend, and next week will start out great.