Common cycling injuries

Common cycling injuries

Some of the most common cycling injuries are caused by over-training and muscle imbalance often resulting in knee and hip pain, this is often referred to cyclist and runners knee. 

Read more about how to fix cycling knee pain

Cyclists who suffer wrist and forearm pain are generally the result compression against the handle bars. Symptoms include numbness and tingling. Good padded gloves will help and frequent changing of hand position will help 

Lower back pain is very common and often postural in origin, a good bike fit can eliminate this with some soft tissue massage ultrasound and postural correction program.

Click here if you would like to know more information about how to fix common cycling injuries 

    

Cycling in the City

Get cycling in the city of Zaragoza, Spain

Cycling around Zaragoza, Spain

Zaragoza in northern Spain has adapted the road system to create many new cycle ways which separate cars from bikes to make cycling in the city so much safer. 

The routes are clearly marked with on-line maps showing how to navigate around the city. This is perfect for the commuter and weekend riders tourists. Cycling in the city of Zaragoza has never been better and safer.

Make a bike route a part of your city holiday break

The City council have installed a rent a bike scheme with many pick up and drop off stations similar to the 'Boris Bikes', London.

Click here to find out more about renting a bike in Zaragoza  

There are so many bike routes around the Zaragoza, from the main circular road if you want to see the outside of the city or via off road cycle tracks following the river Ebro through the centre of Zaragoza which passes the iconic cathedral El Pilar.

Sports overuse and overload injuries

Over Training injuries, running , cycling, gym etc.

Sports injuries which are not impact related are often caused by over training and overloading muscle tissue. This type of injury is common for runners and cyclists to train for this type endurance sports in the belief that the more miles or Kilometres in a week is best.

Unfortunately this is only partly true, we do need to prepare mentally for the challenges of endurance sports by putting in the miles so we believe we can achieve the goal however the higher the mileage the more we are at risk of overload and over training injuries like tendinitis, bursitis etc.

Continuous training does 'exactly what it says on the can'  It prepares and adapts the body for low level continuous activity over long periods however the more we train the more we risk injury. It also does not prepare us for anything else. If we reach an incline or hill our which our bodies are not prepared for then......

Interval training will help reduce and prevent over training injuries by lowering the amount of training per week required with better results. It is the best way to improve VO2 max, the rate at which we can take in Oxygen and deliver it to muscle.  This type of training is preferred as it mimics real sports activity with the up and down of the heart rate, and so trains the heart muscle better than continuous training. Care should be taken not to push the heart rate too high and to allow the rate to drop and recover back to normal between the peaks. Often people will use  20 seconds high intensity and drop to 10 seconds of recovery.

If you would like to know more about training take a look at my website  

To see more on Cycling overuse injuries and Interval training click here  

 

My Bike, holiday in Spain

Cycling holiday in northern Spain, touring the mountains.

My Bike, cycling rural Spain.

I just love this picture of my bike against this amazing background. Great place for a drink stop and leg stretch after a 800m climb!

If you want to see more great photos of our tours have a look at Cycling Rural Spain, photo gallery. 

Cycling in Spring, Calcena Spain

Cycling in Spring and the weather in northern Spain

Spring, rivers over flowing in
Calcena, Spain

In the UK we are very used to the unpredictability of our weather, whilst in Spain where the weather differs from region to region, it is somehow more predictable, hot summers, cold winters, warm and dry autumns but the weather in spring is not always that easy to predict! this year so far it has been very wet one week and dry and warm the next! but when it rains, it is not a constant drizzle all day, we are talking big fat black clouds and when it pours down it really does! I am talking of course about the area of Zaragoza, in the National Park of Moncayo where we run our Spainish cycling tours.

Have a look at the video below and photos taken last week.

As this is a mountainous area, there are many drinking water springs which are now a river! 

Catch up with more info with us on Facebook and cycling in Spain 

 

Vuelta Espana 2015 Win a free stay facebook competition!

Cycling in Calcena

The Vuelta Espana 2015

The Vuelta Espana this year passes through Calcena and rides two of  Cycling rural Spain's routes

To celebrate we are giving away a free stay at our base camp. We will see the tour pass and then will will have a few days to cycle the routes and sample the local hospitality.

This is a big thing for the local area and so locally there is a lot of excitement and preparation for this huge event.

Why not to enter our facebook competition 

to win a free stay in Calcena, Spain to see the tour / Vuelta passes on September the 4th and stay with us from the 2/9/15 to the 6/9/15.

For more details click the link below
Enter Cycling Rural Spain's Facebook Vuelta competition


Click here for more information about our cycling tours in Spain see our website for cycle maps, dates and details.

Cycle training injury?

Cycle training injury

Overuse injuries and cycling RSI or repetitive strain injury

We often think of RSI as being something office workers get in the wrist however people who cycle long distances can suffer the same problem too. If it is a new injury, and its unlikely the cyclist  has not fallen off etc. The most likely cause of the pain is because of overuse or RSI repetitive strain injury. Before we can deal with this type of  injury we need to understand the causes and the causes of the overuse injuries.

Often the cause can just be too high mileage or bike fitting and incorrect posture, saddle too high, etc. 

Whilst cycling in Spain recently, the routes we covered were quite hilly and some found pushing for too long in a high hard gear over a period of several days which caused some knee inflammation and tendinitis...... 

To see full article and read more about  how to prevent cycling overuse injuries click here...

Route of Vuelta Espana 2015
Too see more about the Vuelta Espana 2015 click here....