Unnatural leg pain

[justD]

Hi peeps,

My new wife of 2 months is getting up at 5am to cycle with me. I love the idea that she's doing that, but she's in a bit of pain when cycling.

I don't quite know what her condition is, but she's had 8 pregnancies/child births and she has something related to her veins in her legs (stretched veins, I think) and the way she describes it the blood doesn't circulate properly through her legs and she has pain even when not cycling. When she's worn some tight pants before it's helped a little (not for cycling as such, but just walking around), but she doesn't want to spend $150 just to find out whether it'll help for cycling. I laughed and said PLEASE spend the money.

Some points:
The pain starts 2 minutes after she starts riding and apparently doesn't get much worse for the rest of our ride.
Ride is 6kms to my office and she does another 5kms home.
If she goes really slow, she says she'd be able to go on forever.
Cheap bike that her son uses, gears not working properly and old, taped-together saddle.
My wife is pretty lean (unlike me) and very health conscious (unlike me)

I've told her to start with shorter rides and take every 3rd day off, but she doesn't want to accept that that'll help. She's somewhat stubborn and had a hard time accepting that I can cycle further and faster than her because of my weight and her generally being more healthy than me.

Anyone got any advice? Is this just lactic acid buildup that'll pass as she gets fit? She says it IS lactic acid buildup, but not convinced it'll pass because of her stretched veins and the fact that her legs pain a little all the time anyhow.

cheers,

Dirk

[iMad]

Hi peeps,

My new wife of 2 months is getting up at 5am to cycle with me. I love the idea that she's doing that, but she's in a bit of pain when cycling.

I don't quite know what her condition is, but she's had 8 pregnancies/child births and she has something related to her veins in her legs (stretched veins, I think) and the way she describes it the blood doesn't circulate properly through her legs and she has pain even when not cycling. When she's worn some tight pants before it's helped a little (not for cycling as such, but just walking around), but she doesn't want to spend $150 just to find out whether it'll help for cycling. I laughed and said PLEASE spend the money.

Some points:
The pain starts 2 minutes after she starts riding and apparently doesn't get much worse for the rest of our ride.
Ride is 6kms to my office and she does another 5kms home.
If she goes really slow, she says she'd be able to go on forever.
Cheap bike that her son uses, gears not working properly and old, taped-together saddle.
My wife is pretty lean (unlike me) and very health conscious (unlike me)

I've told her to start with shorter rides and take every 3rd day off, but she doesn't want to accept that that'll help. She's somewhat stubborn and had a hard time accepting that I can cycle further and faster than her because of my weight and her generally being more healthy than me.

Anyone got any advice? Is this just lactic acid buildup that'll pass as she gets fit? She says it IS lactic acid buildup, but not convinced it'll pass because of her stretched veins and the fact that her legs pain a little all the time anyhow.

cheers,

Dirk

I think that's the sort of question best posed to your local GP.

[sogood]

Dirk, you never give us easy questions do you?

[justD]

Dirk, you never give us easy questions do you?

lol, would be boring any other way, right?

Thanks iMad, she has been to her GP before. He suggested the tights, but I just wanted to see if there isn't something else to be done.

[U2adam!!!]

A couple of questions I have for you and your wife.

Is this pain just in the quads and quite sharp in nature? Does it restrict any movement at all when she is riding?

Tim

[justD]

Thanks for your interest people, I think we're sorted. Her condition is called "varicose veins" and she believes it's a result of the 8 pregnancies...
She got herself a pair of these
http://www.skins.net
and I could hardly stay ahead of her this morning. Previouisly she was riding at around 16km/h and this morning I had to do 24km/h to stay ahead of her. Soon she'll be much faster than me as she's a fraction of my size and generally quite fit.

All good,

thanks.

[foo on patrol]

A good outcome mate!

Foo

[Meditator]

Its great that she's solved her problem. Amazing what a difference those pants have made. are they knicks or leggings?

I don't know if this is the case but it occurs to me that the explanation for the pain maybe that because of the lack of elasticity in her veins, she ends up with too much blood in her legs since with exercise all the blood goes to where its needed ie most active. If the skins restrict the veins, this is probably how they are working.