Rather disruptive quad pain - stairs are a real challenge currently (Post Covid 2nd vaccination)

daniel_b

Morning all,

Sunday I went out on a fastish club ride, well fed, well hydrated, and all the usual things I eat and drink along the way.
It was a 45 mile ride, and after about 15 miles I realised it wasn't going to be a good one.

I had my 2nd vaccination on Tuesday, so wonder if this may have been a contributory factor - yes it was hot, but I'm used to heat, and wasn't sweating bucket loads or anything of that ilk.

The three people I was with refused to let me go alone, which was nice of them, as they slowed and or waited for me at the tops of the hills, but the net result is that I pushed on more than I otherwise would have done.
I've only felt that devoid of energy on a couple of rides, and then if I'm solo I just back out, and spin home.

Thinking back, for the last 25 miles I think I was riding with a feeling of cramp in my quads, but just regulated the effort so it never spilled over to absolute agony if that makes sense, you know that feeling when the cramp takes your breath away.

We made it back to the cafe, and this was the time (I knew it was coming) I was in crampy agony as soon as I got off the bike, luckily a young lady was there to take my bike for me which was incredibly fortunate, and I had to apologise as I effed and blinded in her presence at the pain.

Anyway, cycled home post cafe, normal stretches and normal routine, didn't think an awful lot more about it.

Monday morning, and today, my thighs are really painful, just the fronts, which I think are the quads?

I've done a bit of stretching since, standing, foot up behind the bum, pull it in towards your body, and that is a challenge to to get to that position, but it does help a little bit.

This morning I did some rollering on the fronts of my thighs, bl00dy hell it hurt, but it did help a bit, but only for a short period of time, ie up to around 15 minutes after rollering, ascending and descending the stairs were less painful that it had been, but maybe after 45 minutes we were back to the previous position.
hence why I'm planning to roller once an hour today to see if I can gain any enduring improvement by the evening, but currently stairs up are painful, but managable, going down I have been forcing myself to go down normally, but if I wanted to reduce pain I would have to go sideways.

Anyone had similar, or have any specific stretches they can recommend that might help?

Oh I did try a massage gun, lightly on them yesterday, pretty painful, and seemed to yield no benefit.



Annoyed, as have a couple of days off later this week, and had loads of jobs I was planning to get done, and probably the odd bike ride.
I can still get the jobs done, I'm just going to be slower if this continues, but I do wonder if a gentle spin on the bike might help.

Or perhaps they just need time?

Ben6899

I had really sore quads for about a week after my second vaccination.

daniel_b

Ben6899 said:

I had really sore quads for about a week after my second vaccination.

Thanks Ben - is that irrespective of any exercise?

My first vaccination made me feel pretty rough for about a week, this time I thought I felt nothing at all, maybe a minor headache that day, bit of an achy arm for a couple of days, and that was it.

And it's because I was feeling so 'fine' that I made the bad decision to go on a fast ride

Ben6899

Irrespective of exercise.

On the bike, my legs felt blocked - no form. I just rode through it and took things easy.

daniel_b

Ta, maybe my over effort comparatively on Sunday has exacerbated things, and I just need to wait for them to recover.

Ben6899

I’d take it easy, yeh.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Sounds similar in some respects to what happened to me after my second jab on 15th June, having had bad side effects from my first jab on 12th April, in terms of general health and cycling fitness.

I felt rough until part way through 17th, out of nowhere then did my best 20mins since before the first jab on the 19th and felt knackered for the rest of the day, legs felt weak for the next week in terms of outright power and cadence. Off the bike, I didn't up to doing much at all.

webboo

After my second jab, I felt like I’d got DOMs for about a week. It didn’t really effect my riding or other exercise but I was aching all the time. On one ride I was having to move around all the time to try and stretch various bit of my body to try and get comfortable.

daniel_b

Thanks all, and I thought I had gotten away with it!

How long did it last rougly @N0bodyOfTheGoat after your best 20 minute effort?
I know you said a week, and then was it gradual return to form, or just back straight away to full fitness?
Sound like I might be in a similar place, ie my effort was 5 days after the second vaccination.

I'm not 'worried' about a delay in getting back to full fitness, whatever that is for me, but more the ability to walk easily up and down stairs would be a real boon!

I'm kicking myself for making a p1ss poor decision

daniel_b

Couple of ice blocks (wrapped in something like a tea towel) sat on top of my thighs worth a go?

Just did some more rollering, not seeing much improvement so far, but will persevere and see what it's like at the end of the day.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

daniel_b said:

Thanks all, and I thought I had gotten away with it!

How long did it last rougly @N0bodyOfTheGoat after your best 20 minute effort?
I know you said a week, and then was it gradual return to form, or just back straight away to full fitness?
Sound like I might be in a similar place, ie my effort was 5 days after the second vaccination.

I'm not 'worried' about a delay in getting back to full fitness, whatever that is for me, but more the ability to walk easily up and down stairs would be a real boon!

I'm kicking myself for making a p1ss poor decision

After that "super human" Zwift TT on the 19th June, the next time I felt normal again was the 27th June, but I was able to ride most days inbetween treating z3 as z4.

However, since then it's been a real rollercoaster regardless of recent fatigue levels from work or riding. Some days I've felt ok/good, other days have felt like a slog even though the power data said they should have been easy/moderate.

Generally, things are improving. However, I've ditched using 95% of the best 20mins from that "super human" day for my FTP and training zones and used figures from a Zwift TT I did on 1st July instead, so a drop from 290 to 283. Managed a ~4.5 hour ride on Friday morning where I tried reaonably hard up inclines and the power numbers weren't too bad, but the uncertainty of what my legs feel like doing day to day and the extra weight I'm carrying, the motivation cup isn't exactly overflowing right now.

Ben6899

I couldn't comment on numbers because I haven't been training to power since Christmas.

ugo.santalucia

I had lots of leg pains after my vaccine, especially the second... shooting sciatica like pains

daniel_b

Update - rollering does NOT help (For this specific thing), so will be aborting that, pains are getting worse if anything, sitting down, getting up are quite a challenge :-(

Just touching the muscle hurts, it's pretty weird, feels tender, I'm guessing that ride has properly damaged them

Think this is going to be a long boring week or more.

webboo

Might be a week for lying in cold bath or paddling pool sipping cold beer.

daniel_b

Thought I should update this in case anyone else has a similar occurrence.

So Monday last week was bad, Tuesday was terrible, could barely walk up the stairs, and down was a real challenge - quads tender to the touch.

Wednesday I saw a notable improvement, still discomfort, but probably 50% less.
Thursday it pretty much felt back to normal, and as my partner and daughter had gone away camping just 15 miles away, it was an excuse to have a gentle ride out and test out the commute bike with a newly fitted rack and pannier.
Took it real easy in both directions, and all seemed fine, but there were no hard efforts or anything too hard in there.

A few days later, and all pain had gone - they are back to normal.

Still a bit nervous about going on a fast bike ride, so think I will stick to lower paced rides for the time being, and see how things go.

I think it unlikely that the really painful muscles were torn or damaged as I can't see how they could have repaired themselves in 2-3 days, seems virtually impossible, so perhaps it is somehow something from the vaccine that flowed around my body, and settled in my quads - or they showed up the most as I knackered them on the Sunday.

Very strange.

Thankyou for all the replies and helpful suggestions :-)

ugo.santalucia

Strange but very common

daniel_b

I think if I feel that again on a group ride I'm going to properly abort, soft pedal back home, and let them continue rather than pushing on because I want to hold people up as little as possible - although it was very nice of them to want us to stick together.