Nuts...

[Marty Moose]

Well this si becoming a good new story FINALLY

MM

[ireland57]

Cold and wet outside...good excuse to have two days off in a row .I could HTFU but that may have been what caused the problem in first place.
There is a 56km cyclosportive on Saturday thou...and most of the club is riding (in the 135km version)...might be worth a go
So yup good news...so far!.
Cheers all.

I reckon it'd be worth a go but steady as she goes.

Good luck.

[cavebear2]

Cheers
Perry

[toolonglegs]

Cheers Perry...it is good not going to this thread very often!.
Managed a pretty good paced (and rough) 1.45 mtb ride yesterday...felt great!.I am still only riding 1 or 2 times a week...I started off trying to stick with a club training ride.Bad idea.
But I think I can maybe now start ramping it up a bit.I have mainly been doing mtb rides lately as the forests are beautiful with no rain for the last month!.The constant bashing on the hardtail actually seems to be helping.
Also a lot of psoas,hammy,glute stretches.I still have pain in the thoarasic/lumbar junction...but it seems to be less.I expect any inflammation will take a long while to go.
So good news!.

[foo on patrol]

Yaaayy! Happy days ahead for you TLL, hopefully.

[toolonglegs]

I am staying here till the fin de July.It takes a month to get a downgrade...so I going to ask to get dropped down to Cat 2 and maybe get a race in, in about 6 weeks all going well.
I was made an lifetime member of my club at a meeting yesterday ...the first one! ...very proud!.

[aldifan]

Bloke I work with who has been a road cyclist all his life bought his first mountain bike (a soft tail) in preparation for getting knee replacement surgery. He reckons the lower gears and the more comfortable ride are going to help his rehabilitation. He also likes the fact that he can crawl around in granny gear and still manage to look butch.

Here's hoping the open road is yours to command soon.

[greyhoundtom]

I am staying here till the fin de July.It takes a month to get a downgrade...so I going to ask to get dropped down to Cat 2 and maybe get a race in, in about 6 weeks all going well.
I was made an lifetime member of my club at a meeting yesterday ...the first one! ...very proud!.

Congratulations, that is quite an achievement and just shows as to what high esteem you are held in your cycling club.

[MichaelB]

I am staying here till the fin de July.It takes a month to get a downgrade...so I going to ask to get dropped down to Cat 2 and maybe get a race in, in about 6 weeks all going well.
I was made an lifetime member of my club at a meeting yesterday ...the first one! ...very proud!.

So does that mean the problem is solved, or just that the symptoms are now not as bad ?

Hoping it's the former !!

[ruscook]

I am staying here till the fin de July.It takes a month to get a downgrade...so I going to ask to get dropped down to Cat 2 and maybe get a race in, in about 6 weeks all going well.
I was made an lifetime member of my club at a meeting yesterday ...the first one! ...very proud!.

So does that mean the problem is solved, or just that the symptoms are now not as bad ?

Hoping it's the former !!

+1 TLL, improvement has been a long time coming. Good luck

[toolonglegs]

Cheers for the replies!.
Michael,to tell the truth I HAVE NO IDEA.
I had my last cortisone injection 24th of Feb,it didn't seem to do much,maybe reduce the pain a bit after 3 or 4 weeks.So that was nearly 3 months ago now.About 6 weeks ago the pain seemed to really drop in my lower lumbar area...and the weather warmed up!.So I started with a couple of rides...but even that was probably too much.I still have "twinges" in my Thorasic/Lumbar junction but even they seem to be getting less and less.I had quite bad muscle pains at night after first getting back on the bike...mainly hammie/glutes/psoas.So I have been stretching them a bit,not too much.
But last night I did 70km's with the club and I actually had some power in my legs ...since the weekend I have nearly been feeling normal!.
I expect something is coming right finally...I will just give myself plenty of recovery after harder rides,but I seem to improve more on the harder rides (especially mtb) than when I fluff around.
Hopefully it is just a very slow process for the chronic inflammation to disappear.
Still can't reach the drops very well though .
Baby steps!.

[MichaelB]

.....Baby steps!.

Definitely !!! Better to take longer rather than end up in the same boat again !!

Good luck !!

[foo on patrol]

Who'd you bribe for the life membership? That is a very big privilege to be bestowed on you TLL!

[algaematt]

I also get sore nuts from riding. If I don't ride for a while then they get better, some bike seats are better than others but no matter what it seems that they just bang about. I went and saw the doctor and he tested me for some STDs. I went a couple of weeks thinking maybe my girlfriend was cheating and she'd given me Chlamydia but lo and behold my superstitions were unfounded. Next I went and paid $150 for a top set of knicks. Helped a bit but not too much. My solution that works pretty well is first put on a set of regular undies, then put a set of knicks over the top. Then put a cricket box in between the knicks and the undies and no problem, I can ride quite happily now for quite a while with no pain. I think what causes the pain is the pedalling motion, as I turn the pedals, my thighs push my nuts and they bang a bit and get squashed a bit causing me some grief. Some people have more sensitive nuts than others I believe, there's a condition called epididymitis. The epidiymis gets inflamed and causes pain. The cricket box stops my thighs banging against them so it's a good solution for me. I've been planning on going to a really good bike shop that specialises in racing bikes, they must encounter this every now and then and should be able to fit me up with a good riding saddle as I'm sure this will help a little too.

[greyhoundtom]

A lot of guys have these sorts of problems and the solution is fairly simple.

Cut a 25 mm wide strip of high density foam, such as used in camping mats, just long enough so that it fits around the complete package, split the foam down the centre so that its only about 5 or 6 mm thick and round off any sharp corners. Then sew a tight sleeve for the foam out of the material of an old pair of knicks, slide the foam into the sleeve, and sew the ends of the sleeve together.

Fit around the package keeping the join in the lycra at the top, and this will keep the testicles further forward out of harms way and stops the skin from being pinched while riding.

[toolonglegs]

Pretty sure my sore groin was coming from cramping and painful psoas muscles.It is possible it all originated from very tight muscles in my hips.There by putting so much pressure on my lower and mid spine that it became chronically inflammed.At the moment if I put one leg on a table and try and lean forward with a straight back...well I can't,not even an inch from upright.Just standing two legged straight in front of a normal height table and the putting my forearms down on the table in "TT" position is pretty damn hard (I am 194cm though)...so no wonder all that time in the drops and TT position caused so much problems.
So for now I am trying to stretch things out a bit...my psoas has been so tight some nights I get pains in my sleep and curl up into a ball...but I did ride 100kms on Friday and 75 yesterday...so the engine is still there,just the chassis is pretty stuffed!.
As for the Life Membership...yup that cost me a bundle .

[AUbicycles]

Fit around the package keeping the join in the lycra at the top, and this will keep the testicles further forward out of harms way and stops the skin from being pinched while riding.

G'day Tom.
Lets have a photo (just the 'contraption' .... I still need to sleep at night so no need for the rest).

[twizzle]

A lot of guys have these sorts of problems and the solution is fairly simple.

Cut a 25 mm wide strip of high density foam, such as used in camping mats, just long enough so that it fits around the complete package, split the foam down the centre so that its only about 5 or 6 mm thick and round off any sharp corners. Then sew a tight sleeve for the foam out of the material of an old pair of knicks, slide the foam into the sleeve, and sew the ends of the sleeve together.

Fit around the package keeping the join in the lycra at the top, and this will keep the testicles further forward out of harms way and stops the skin from being pinched while riding.

I find it hard to believe someone has taken to time to come up with a solution... and does this cause people in public to stop and stare?

[greyhoundtom]

G'day Tom.
Lets have a photo (just the 'contraption' .... I still need to sleep at night so no need for the rest).

I need to mak a new one if you want a photo

I find it hard to believe someone has taken to time to come up with a solution... and does this cause people in public to stop and stare?

I'm an old guy with plenty of loose skin and needed a solution to an uncomfortable problem.......and........don't have much for anyone to stare at, but this does improve the situation.

[foo on patrol]

Sounds ummmmmm, uncomfortable to me, unless all of the edges are smooooooooooooth!

[Ken Ho]

TLL, I read a few pages, then skipped a few, so I haven't got every detail, but you are giving a good description of mechanical pain, though your scoliosis won't be helping.
Mechanical pain doesn't show up on scans, but comes from joint inflammation causing muscle spasm.
I'm guessing the cortisone jabs were facet joint injections, though it sounds like you are not really sure. Hopefully they will settle things down a bit, but you will still need to address some mechanical issues.
A good sports physio is your friend here. My wifelet keeps injuring herself, and has a great physio. She has recently started cycling too, and he has commented that cyclists get very tight in the hamstrings and back, and need to keep up their stretches to prevent that from becoming a issue. I'm no fan of stretching, but I've started to do more, as I can see myself having problems if I don't.

[toolonglegs]

Hi Ken,yes it has settled down a lot.Still very tight now but I am stretching a lot.TBH I don't know what caused the initial problem but I think it may have been a psoas related pain.When I stopped ridding everything froze up.
Anyway on the mend slowly now!.

[Ken Ho]

Shame I didn't look at this thread a while ago. I'm a GP and I see a lot of functional back back. Surprisingly few people with "sciatic' pain have a prolapsed disc.
They tend to have muscle spasm issue caused by joint inflammation. The first joint is L5/S1 usually, caused by forward pelvic tilt that comes with abdo fat, eg pregnant woman stance. Then the SI joint gets inflamed, and the piriformis and gluteus medius muscles go into spasm. Psoas spasm is less common, but surely happens. The amount of symptomology can be quite marked, including loss of sensation and reflexes, mimicking disc prolapse.
Poor spinal proprioception has been shown to be a big contributor. Latin dancing is a good cure for that.
Glad to hear you are getting sorted at last. Fair warning to the rest of us to stay limber, and do our stretches, even if they do suck !!

[toolonglegs]

All my problems at the moment are around L1 / T12?...but in the last few days I have noticed I seem to be freeing up there as well (I can stretch out that part of my back without too much pain).
I think I had more than one problem...but it all came down to inflammation.

[scotto]

A lot of guys have these sorts of problems and the solution is fairly simple.

Cut a 25 mm wide strip of high density foam, such as used in camping mats, just long enough so that it fits around the complete package, split the foam down the centre so that its only about 5 or 6 mm thick and round off any sharp corners. Then sew a tight sleeve for the foam out of the material of an old pair of knicks, slide the foam into the sleeve, and sew the ends of the sleeve together.

Fit around the package keeping the join in the lycra at the top, and this will keep the testicles further forward out of harms way and stops the skin from being pinched while riding.

bugger using foam you softcocks !!

gaffa tape will suffice