Training with a Slight Injury

Training
1

Hello,

I am working my way through Base 1 and all was going well, even started to notice that I was getting a little stronger and faster, until last Sunday. I am doing the low volume plan, and adding rides with my group on Saturdays and my wife on Sundays. Well, last Sunday, I did an online group ride, with a challenging hill and did well with it. I didn’t go all out, but still got a small FTP bump, allegedly. It was a short ride, but I rested a bit and then went for a 30 mile, slow and easy ride with my wife, like we normally do. Everything was going well, until about halfway into it, at our turnaround point. There is a short hill, not too steep, that we ride up without issue, normally. But this time, I felt a slight discomfort in the middle muscle of my right, upper thigh. I believe it is the Rectus Femorus muscle. It wasn’t painful, just felt a bit uncomfortable, so, for the rest of the ride home, I just used my left (weaker) leg, letting my right leg spin along without using it. It worked ok, no more discomfort on the ride, but it did make the rest of the small hills more challenging! I took Monday and Tuesday off, to rest my leg and it hasn’t bothered me so far. I did a zone 1 recovery ride, again with only my left leg, on the trainer this morning, concentrating on getting better at the independent leg drills with my left leg and hopefully strengthening it. I, like everyone else, don’t like being injured, but hopefully this will give me a chance to get my weaker leg better, which I probably would never have taken the time to work on.

My question is, whether or not this is a good idea. I’m not feeling any discomfort in the “hurt” leg while training with the other one. And, how long should I wait to check and see if the right leg is still injured? I don’t want to push it too soon and make it take longer!

Thanks for any insight that y’all can give,
Charles

2

I would avoid overdoing too much emphasis on your “good” leg…that seems like a recipe to incur some muscle imbalances / strains as you suddenly overload one side.

My gut reaction is that you had a bit of a cramp after doing a hard Sunday ride and then going back out with your wife. A bit of overload, probably.

I would suggest doing a Z2 ride tomorrow as normal, no favoring of your left leg. See how it feels and go form there…be wiling to wager it will feel fine.

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3

Sounds like a plan. I’ll give it a go and keep an eye on how it feels.

4

Well, I tested the leg out this morning. I went easy for awhile and it seemed ok, so I slowly ramped up the effort to see how it felt and eventually worked my way up to a harder effort and everything seems fine, so I guess I’m good to go. Thanks very much for the help!

Charles

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5

I’ve induced a trigger point (localized muscle pain) doing an intense ride the day after strength training. Things that help me are massaging the area. You can foam roll it. And other than I just did Z1/2 rides for the 3-4 days it took to go away.

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