A Visit to the Chiropractor

I thought I’d talk more about my neck pain issues.

How it Started:

• The pain started when I rode my bike for 90 miles on Saturday, Sept 5th.  At the end of that long ride, everything hurt.  Alot.   Especially my neck.
• The very next day, Sunday, I tripped while running .    Later that day, my neck was even more painful, to the point where I had trouble sleeping.
• The pain subsided a little bit on Monday, which was a day of rest for me.
• Tuesday and Thursday, I did short 2 hour rides, and each time, the neck pain came back with a vengeance!   I was also very stiff, making it hard to look behind me to check for cars.

I have arthritis in my neck, and I was really starting to worry that the long bike and subsequent faceplant while running caused me some kind of whiplash injury.    At the suggestion of my friend Ginger, aka “Aquaphor Chic”, I went to see a Chiropractor – Dr. Ed Raymond, who is located in Durham, NC.

The Appointment

Dr. Raymond asked me alot of questions about my training and I was really impressed how much he knew about cycling injuries and time trial bikes.  He didn’t think arthritis was a big factor.  He said if it was, I would feel neck pain on every ride within the first hour.   He didn’t seem to think the the fall I had running was much of a factor either.  Since this neck pain  rears it’s ugly head when I ride longer than 3 hours, he thought it was a muscle endurance issue.    He said that holding your head in a stationary position while cycling gives your neck muscles an isometric workout.   That is like a tight clenching of the muscles.   Since the muscles are not moving, they are not clearing out lactic acid.  So they get fatigued and start to spasm and that causes alot of pain. I hope I am remembering all that correctly!

After explaining all this, Dr. Raymond did some ultrasound on the muscles on my upper back.  Then he had me lay face down on the table and did some adjustments to my spine.    That was the first time I’ve ever spine adjustments.    He told me to breathe in, then exhale, and then said he was going to put some pressure on my back.  OMG – it was really quite a surprise to hear my spine crunch like that, so I yelped “Ouch!”  He asked if it really hurt.  I said “No, but it sounded like it should have!”  He laughed and said that’s what everybody says!   He also did some crunchy things to my shoulders.   It all felt really good, and I immediately noticed my flexibility returned.  He said it would take a while for the muscle pain to subside.

Dr Raymond suggested that I ramped up my bike mileage too quickly.   Hmmmm, here is what my training logs show… what do you think?

Looks like a 35% increase in bike volume!    I guess I am not Invincible on the bike, either!  I need to stick to the plan, rather than trying to make some foolish goal, like ride all the way to Greensboro!   I think I got within 5 miles, Damn!

Recommendations

It did take almost a week for the muscle pain to subside.   Dr Raymond offered the following advice for helping it heal, and preventing more pain in the future:

• for five minutes every hour that you are on the bike, sit up out of the bars and go thru a range of motion in your neck muscles.  That will help clear out the lactic acid and give them a chance to rest.
• Stick to 10% rule in ramping up mileage, 20% tops.
• Use ice alot.   I asked him if there was some time window for when you were supposed to apply ice then heat.  He said you really can’t go wrong with ice.   Except for a rare risk of frostbite, ice can’t make it worse.  Heat however can make it worse if you apply it too soon, so just stick with ice.  That’s good to know.  Alot of times I don’t do anything because I’m not sure if I’m supposed to do ice or heat!

The Aftermath

On Friday, after my appointment, I went swimming. I cut that workout short, because it was bothering my neck.   Hehe, I’ll take any excuse to cut a swim workout short.

My neck was still a little sore before my 3 hour ride on Saturday, the day after seeing Dr. Raymond.   That’s when I decided to try the KT Tape.   That stuff worked great.   I also used the  idea to sit up every hour on the bike.     I had minimal pain after that ride.   I still iced it just in case.

Sunday I did a 2 hour ride followed by a 1 hour brick run.     I did have some neck pain after that ride.  But, that was a “race pace” ride – and I was very focused – so I forgot to sit up and rest the neck.   Lots more ice that day.   It’s so liberating to know I can use ice any time.   I can’t believe I went four years as an athlete not icing because I wasn’t sure if I should! D’OH!

Today is now Monday, and my neck feels good.  Not 100% back to normal, but I did NOT feel the need to ice it at all today.     I think it’s phenomenal that I have gone from unbearable pain in my neck last week – to hardly anything at all today – without any reduction in training.   Well, except for cutting the swim workout short; but, like I said, that was a good thing.   😉