Sore quads after standing on pedals?
RutlandGav
Posts: 144
Hi all,
I'll post in the newbie section because I only returned to cycling in February and by most standards am still badly out of shape. I've come down from 100kg to 82kg but the NHS web site says I need to shed another 14kg to be my ideal weight.
Anyway, my commute is along the flood plains of the River Trent, which is flat as a billiard table, so i swapped in a close-stacked cassette. But , I've done a bit of touring on my days off. Just did a 2 day thing with 6 hours riding each way and discovered that Leics and Lincs are in fact quite hilly, or seem that way when 14kg overweight with a 17kg hybrid bike, 5kg touring panniers and 4 litres of water onboard.
I'm finding that I can pedal seated as long as i want, but standing on the pedals to overcome the lack of gearing seems to give me very sore thighs after. Even a 90 minute training session in the hills did this. Does standing on the pedals involve eccentric contractions, am i doing it wrong or should i just grow a set?
It is possible i need to just get used to climbing, but i should also add that my house is at the top of a 300ft hill, so i am actually doing a steep climb at the end of each day's commute.
I'll post in the newbie section because I only returned to cycling in February and by most standards am still badly out of shape. I've come down from 100kg to 82kg but the NHS web site says I need to shed another 14kg to be my ideal weight.
Anyway, my commute is along the flood plains of the River Trent, which is flat as a billiard table, so i swapped in a close-stacked cassette. But , I've done a bit of touring on my days off. Just did a 2 day thing with 6 hours riding each way and discovered that Leics and Lincs are in fact quite hilly, or seem that way when 14kg overweight with a 17kg hybrid bike, 5kg touring panniers and 4 litres of water onboard.
I'm finding that I can pedal seated as long as i want, but standing on the pedals to overcome the lack of gearing seems to give me very sore thighs after. Even a 90 minute training session in the hills did this. Does standing on the pedals involve eccentric contractions, am i doing it wrong or should i just grow a set?
It is possible i need to just get used to climbing, but i should also add that my house is at the top of a 300ft hill, so i am actually doing a steep climb at the end of each day's commute.
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Comments
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What cassette did you swop out/to?0
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if you're not doing it regularly then assume your body isn't used to it, hence the aching
build it into some regular exercises, you can stand using a high gear on the flat if necessarymy bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny0 -
Do some goblet squats with weight, and lunges with weights. That'll help.0
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The bike is 17kg...? then with panniers... then water..?
In all honesty , bud, check again, because my singlespeed communter with gas pipe for frame only comes in at 12 kg.
By the way I did my 10 mile cummulative commute all out of the saddle.. not out of choice.. and reasons you wouldnt want to go into either... it didnt overpower any muscle groupo except I felt in triceps.
You dont need to do any silly gym stuff.. just ride more ... and ride .... take less water on board... petrol station Spar shops come in handy .. middle England you are never more than 5 miles away from a Tesco express apparently.0 -
If you are going to use an already heavy bike with 5 kg in your panniers and 4 litres of water, at very least you need the right gearing, but you say you have a close cassette set-up for your normal flat rides. If you were to get a lighter touring bike with low gears, even fully laden you should be able to spin up the hills, albeit quite slowly, without having to stand on the pedals.0
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The bike is 17kg...? then with panniers... then water..?.
Hnnnngg..
OK not the most accurate method, but i just checked again by weighing myself on the bathroom scales with the bike in my arms vs without bike. 21kg with breakdown tools and panniers.
It's not a road bike, it's a cheap ish mtb that was modded for more road riding and it's in the largest frame size (i like being able to stretch out). Still F**** heavy I agree.
Obviously if i go back to MTB gearing i'd be able to climb anything and stay in the seat, this is more a general question as to whether standing on the pedals should cause muscle soreness even though i do it for a couple of minutes at the end of every commute ride.
I've been doing about 120 miles a week commute but am not able to commute as much some weeks because of work schedule so make the miles up with touring.take less water on board... petrol station Spar shops come in handy .. middle England you are never more than 5 miles away from a Tesco express apparently
If only... you hit a little village every couple miles and generally there is a church and a pub but no shop. Occasionally, you do get a shop but it's only open from 10 am - 3pm four days a week and as i prefer to ride in the evenings, I once did 60 miles from Bottesford to Rutland Water & back without passing a single convenience store. Eventually I got so thirsty i just barged into a pub unaccompanied in lycra and helmet hair and ordered two pints of lemonade. Or I could have pretended to convert to catholicism and demand to be baptised, either works.
You might get the odd petrol station on A roads if you're the kind of person that finds traffic thundering past them a good way to relax, or in the larger towns if you like exchanging banter with street gangs, but out in the sticks different rules apply..0 -
The bike is 17kg...? then with panniers... then water..?
In all honesty , bud, check again, because my singlespeed communter with gas pipe for frame only comes in at 12 kg.
Not that unusual for a touring bike, that weight. Mine comes in at 18kg (weighed on the local airport scales). Rack, heavy duty wheels, beefy steel fork, permanently mounted lights...it all adds up. And that's got a fairly light aluminium frame (1.8kg).
To the OP; do some stretches of your quads after your rides.- - - - - - - - - -
On Strava.{/url}0 -
Riding out of the saddle just hurts your quads more. I can do 6hrs seated, but I'd be damned if I tried 6hrs out of the saddle, even if the strain on the upper body wasn't part of the equation.I'm on Twitter! Follow @olake92 for updates on my racing, my team's performance and some generic tweets.0
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The bike is 17kg...? then with panniers... then water..?
Start a thread about how to make your bike lighter and you'll be told that the weight of the bike has no bearing on how fast you go :roll: .0 -
Its just technique, finding your own natural rhythm and sticking to it and practice so that the relevant bits get used to it.
I used to struggle doing more than 30 seconds stood up but then spent a winter doing spin bikes twice a week for 45 mins and this transformed my climbing because in the spin sessions we spend more time stood up than sat down.0 -
Simply ride more....it's not just your quads, but your core muscles, shoulders and upper arm muscles so a really good workout. You don't need steep hills, simply ride a bigger gear up any gradient to get used to it.Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..0
