Long distance aches

[MattHB]

Today I pushed my furthest distance, just over 45 miles. My route took in bulbarrow hill in Dorset, the second highest in the county. I managed my sugars really well and felt like I could have gone on a lot further had it not been for the quite bad achy shoulders and neck.

I stopped often and stretched it out, changed position a lot etc.

Does your body get used to distances and these aches appear later and later as time goes on? Or is there something else I need to do to help my body out? Bike fit is perfect btw.

Cheers.

Ps. Dead chuffed at doing that damn hill

 

[ColinJ]

It sounds like you are making progress - well done, and keep it up! I don't think you should be getting those aches and pains though ...

I suggested in a different thread that your bike position must be wrong. If you are sure that your position is correct, then the only other thing that I can think of to explain the upper body problems is that you are climbing in too high a gear and having to pull really hard on the bars.

I just checked that hill on my OS maps and it isn't an Alpine monster of a climb, but it does have some steep bits from certain directions which could have you straining a bit if you don't use low gears. What gear ratio do you use on the really steep stuff?

 

[MattHB]

I came up the east side, so long and slow (about 3 miles) but nothing that steep. I'm still trying to get used to a roadie, so some of it might be me being a little impatient with myself!

I have a long back and I'm prone to
shoulder aches anyway. I've put a shorter stem on which has helped loads, and shimmed the bars up as much as they go. It's made a big difference to the feel of things.

Will see how it goes. It's been a heavy miles week, the most ever and it's only Thursday! So that also might be it.

I'll take a gentle ride out sat or sunday and concentrate on relaxing. I find that quite hard.

 

[MattHB]

I'm wondering if I might have been a bit premature in fitting the short stem. Looking at sheldon browns website and a few YouTube vids about posture they all suggest being much lower and flatter than I probably am. It seems that being more upright would likely stop my shoulders rolling forward and cause the tension I'm getting? It would also explain some of the saddle fidgeting I get as more weight would be on my bum.

Thoughts?

 

[Spinney]

When I got my touring bike I bought it from a shop that 'fitted' it for me (a good half hour of faffing around on a mock-bike, with the chap standing back and looking at me, humming and ha-ing, making adjustments etc). Then when I collected it, I thought he'd got it hideously wrong - long stem, I felt really tipped forward.

Not many miles later, I knew he was right. Low and flat seemed to be good.

However if I haven't been riding for a while (a month or more over Xmas), the first couple of rides give me pains in the shoulder and neck.

It might just be that those bits of you aren't used to doing those distances. Try a few more longish rides and see if it improves. If not, that's the time to start trying to adjust the bike again.

Probably...

 

[MattHB]

Thanks spinney, just what I felt at the time.

Cos I'm a fiddler (a damned impatient one too!) I bought a short stem and changed it after the fit. There's a gentle club run on Sunday. I'm going to refit that longer stem and see what happens.

 

[Ian H]

Core exercises, upper body exercises can help. Also stretching - make sure you have reasonable shoulder and neck mobility.

 

[ColinJ]

Does your body get used to distances and these aches appear later and later as time goes on? Or is there something else I need to do to help my body out? Bike fit is perfect btw.

I suggested in a different thread that your bike position must be wrong. If you are sure that your position is correct, then the only other thing that I can think of to explain the upper body problems is that you are climbing in too high a gear and having to pull really hard on the bars.

I'm wondering if I might have been a bit premature in fitting the short stem. Looking at sheldon browns website and a few YouTube vids about posture they all suggest being much lower and flatter than I probably am. It seems that being more upright would likely stop my shoulders rolling forward and cause the tension I'm getting? It would also explain some of the saddle fidgeting I get as more weight would be on my bum.

Thoughts?

Er, I think you might have been a bit hasty in declaring that your bike fit was perfect!

 

[MattHB]

Er, I think you might have been a bit hasty in declaring that your bike fit was perfect!

Well yes! I'm just an impatient bugger and it felt great to start with on the ride, until I'd read up I was sure it was my body that was wrong