Hip pain?

[Xplora]

It had to happen I guess?

I'm averaging 250+kms a week right now, 6 days of riding with distances even each day. My left hip joint last Thursday started to give me some pain off the bike and on the bike sometimes as well - seems that if I'm carrying a load on the right hand then the pain is there, and nothing if carrying it on the left side. Maybe a strain on the joint's muscle?

Ideas? I've been concentrating on sprinting and high cadence power rather than grinding, could this be the problem?

[Brownster]

Have you been stretching in conjunction with the riding. I this year have lifted my km per week and have to always do alot of stretching to stop muscle soreness, back and hip pain.
Now its cooler I am using my compression gear after rides etc.

[trailgumby]

Some more information about how you structure your workouts across the days of the week would be helpful.

General comments:
Training volume is "calculated" using the formula of Intensity (Rate of Perceved Exertion as a score out of 10) x minutes per ride, added up for the week. The normal rule is no more than 10% increase in volume per week.

Sprint intervals are pretty intense. If you're doing these you need to either reduce the length of the workout or allow more recovery time or both. You should not be backing up a sprint intervals session with another high intensity ride the following day. I reckon you've overstepped this 10% increase per week rule and are paying the price.

Have you been allowing enough recovery time? Have you been taking regular programmed recovery weeks?

Might be time to pick yourself up a copy of Joe Friel's The Cyclist's Training Bible. While there's a bit to get through, it provides excellent information on the fundamentals of cycling training and periodization, and is directly applicable if you're spending 7 or more hours a week on the bike.

Armed with the right information and some self-awareness, training injury is avoidable

[Xplora]

Trail,
I'm doing 20km in the morning, 22km in the evening, M-F. 70-80 kms on Saturday. Seems to be roughly 28-30kmh average all week?

[toolonglegs]

Does the pain subside after a very hot bath?... Try it, usually tells you if you are too tight in the hips ( most of us are).
Don't stretch if it is really sore. I had a very sore hip joint and it was all down to tightness. Look for stretches covering hipflexors, psoas, hammies, piroformis etc... Do them when warm.
Sprint specific workouts shouldn't be over taxing... If they are then they are working more than sprint levels and are also working on your one minute power... That's when it becomes hard work in the body. Sprint jumps for me are 10 secs at most and can be done on a quiet day without tiring you out. If you are sprinting more than 15-20 secs then you will suffer the next day.

[Meditator]

seems that if I'm carrying a load on the right hand then the pain is there, and nothing if carrying it on the left side.

I don't understand what you are saying here. Do you mean if you have a pannier on the right side of the bike?

is this the only time you are feeling any pain?

If so, why not do the sensible thing and spread the load between both panniers. Or do you mean carrying a load when you are off the bike, and it hurts your hip? Again spread the load if you can.

When i'm on tour i may do about 600km per week and carry a fair bit of weight so i am always riding as fast i can without go so far as racing. I've never had any pain in my hips. I've had knee strain from hill riding in too high a gear (because i had to). It sounds to me like you've injured something especially since it happened suddenly.

Usually if there is pain in a muscle you have strained it or your body is out of balance in some way and the pain comes from trying to compensate.

I don't see why stretching would help.

if you can't fix the pain by better balancing any load you are carrying, go and see a physiotherapist - preferably someone who knows something about cycling maybe.

[trailgumby]

Mmmm... I suppose it depends to soem degree on whether you are riding purely for fun with no other goal than time on teh bike, or whether you have an event in mind (wanting to put your mates in the hurt box on the weekend group ride would qualify ).

If Saturday is your main training ride for the week, I'd be inclined to ride Mon-Tue-Wed, with Mon and Wed mornings being the harder/training rides. I'd suggest stretch the morning midweek ones to 90-120 minutes with some hill repeats thrown in, set Tuesday as a low intensity pootle, and take Thursday and Friday off as recovery. Then you'll be good to smash the Saturday one as a three-hour effort for your main training hit-out for the week.

This will lift the quality of your workouts, and build some recovery in during the week withut sacrificing your current volume. Too many people do junk miles and wonder why they don't achieve much.

In the short term for the acute issue, if TLL's idea doesn't lead anywhere for you, an appointment with a physio with some cycling expertise would be a good move. Ice and nurofen will help take the edge off in the meantime.

Edit: meditator's post reminded me that sometimes people have other goals in mind than 1-day events. The above would need to be modified a bit if you're aiming at a multi-day event.

[Xplora]

Got a couple answers from the ride home from some experimentation on the bike.

Left hip is losing a lot of range of motion when I'm putting the juice down. To get the more rapid cadence I am putting my pelvis onto the left side to gain some stability and it is straining the left hip because I'm not really getting my pelvis rolling evenly like I would at 90-100. I think this might be a discovery of the limitations of my never properly fit bike with SPDs and MT42s, compared to the likely "supposed to be using" SPD-SLs and R087s or better for what I'm doing at this many kms.

I will look at the stretches, I guess 275km might make me some kind of wannabe athlete? I haven't exercised competitively for ten years, I could be outside my comfort zone as well. This particular workload is fairly new.

I should mention the M-F rides are commutes, and I am never running early

[PawPaw]

Either it is soft tissue or bone/joint pain. It could be referred pain from irritated nerve roots in the back, or the nerve itself. It could be irritation of hip joint labrum or the joint cartilage (if you are older and have significant wear), or it could be just muscle/tendon. Often difficult to differentiate, even with a physical examination. Though you want to respect the pain - stretch your hip extensors, and hip flexors and adductors. Eat well, hydrate well, sleep and rest well. build up to high intensity after adequate warm ups, get your bike fit sorted.

[trailgumby]

That's good new information.

From my point of view, that ups the ante for going to see a cycling specific manipulative physio. He can give you core strength exercises tailored to address your specific instability issues, and manipulations to straighten out any postural issues.

[Mrfenejeans]

One thing that has been a great relief for pain for me around the hip region has been, not sitting on my wallet, causes all sorts of extra pressure through out a day (and its not even full of money).


For my self a lot of things that cause me pain while on the bike, are caused by things off the bike with a solution that is often very logical.