Still nursing any Lobster injuries? I am!

Joseph Myers, who broke his leg badly on the final day of the race, probably takes #1 prize in the ignominious still-nursing-Lobster-injuries award. But I think I qualify for at least a dishonorable mention, if not 2nd place.

At the end of the race, I had started to develop tendinitis in my upper left ankle. That took about a month to clear up, and in that time, I barely rode my uni at all. After that, I managed a near-century (85 miles) in September.

Then the bizarre: I had barely ridden since recovering from that ride when the pain in my left elbow was diagnosed as ‘tennis elbow’ – apparently from the Lobster (it showed up before the Century).

Then the more bizarre: perhaps from LACK of riding, my left knee has been pulled out of place and is now swollen from some problem I’ll go into more about later. Little pain, but it’s not looking good for riding anytime soon. I go in for P/T on Thursday. And my left elbow still hurts.

Still, I’d do it all again!

Ouch man, I got a couple scars from the tumble I took on day 4 but no lasting injuries.

Hope you heal up quick.

ouch, my friend has slight tendinitis, thats a bugger to start with… but the knee cap thing sounds worse (again one of my friends has that too and has to do loads of stretches to help it recover.

Get well soon!

Not really an injury as such, but since the race. My skin has become more sensitive to the cold. I suspect it might have something to do with all that rain on the second and third days. Since I came back from Nova Scotia, early morning rides in the cold have resulted in red, itchy arms and legs. XP

Funny this thread should show up. I was just surveying my flesh for ticks the other day (tons of fun) when the scar just above my hip caught my attention. I had to remember Truro. I took the superman slide at the end of crit race #3 (after Chuck had destroyed us all). I sure wish I had a picture of that one.

As far as nagging injuries go- none, but I did get some pretty pictures of the workings of my elbow after returning home. The crit tumble left it tender for a month and a half.

Physically I’m fine. Mentally I’m not so sure. Last week I found myself taking a 40km ride on the 36er in the dark one night and in 40 deg F and rain another day. I actually didn’t care for distance riding until AFTER the race.

Now I dream of a Schlumpf…

I hope you to heal fully David. Your knee problem is strange indeed. Better take care of that body!

Lobster ailments

Sorry to here your still ailing. Maybe your just getting old. :slight_smile: You did ride on the second oldest team. I developed pneumonia, but I am not sure if it started during the Lobster or at NAUCC. I was feeling poorly while driving back from the convention and was diognosed shortly afterword. I also developed tendentious in my elbow but that was from rowing down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River a month later.

David, David, it’s okay, we believe you!

We were giving him a hard time during the race, as he was telling us riding uphill was painful so could Dave White and I do it? But by the end of the week this didn’t really matter as we were doing that anyway. David Stone was our fastest man on the flats and downhills, and by Friday we were giving him as much of that as possible while we cranked more of the uphills. If we hadn’t, we might have easily been passed by “Team Beau”, who finally got his Schlumpf 36er up and running for that last day. We only stayed ahead of the 2-man Yellow Line Fever team by 9 minutes.

And no, you’re not old. If you were old that would mean I was definitely old, which is not acceptable!

Do you think your Tennis Elbow is from holding the seat handle? Or is Tennis Elbow something you get from too much use of the joint? In any case, I guess it’s a good idea not to go from zero riding to 85 miles without a bit of building up to it… :slight_smile:

How much road riding have I done since RTL? Well, I did the 10k (8k) at NAUCC, and the 10k and Marathon at Unicon. I think that’s it. I’ve been enjoying MUni!

Wow, take care. It didn’t seem that serious the last day we were in NYC. Is the knee a recurring injury? That might explain the cause.

Well, I’ve always said that I could go from zero to 60 pretty fast, and were it not for that Lobster, I think I’d have been fine after the 85 miles; my elbow was already sore and tingly before the Century. But i did train a lot for the Lobster, and still I came away with at least two injuries: the left ankle and then, a few weeks after, the tennis elbow.

I do believe the tennis elbow came from holding my extention before (training) and during the race.

The knee thing IS a recurring injury, but the problem has been dormant for two decades. I did remember to mention this to the doctor, luckily.

Word is that Unicycle Max had to hang up his uni for the time being. His knees have been bothering him ever since RTL. He’s now getting quite good at the ol’ BC Wheel.

No lingering injuries here. Everything healed quite nicely.

The tendonitis I developed the last 2 days of RTL took several weeks to heal. I was so sore I could barely walk the day after (had to really limp around at the disc golf game that day!) I had a couple of ultrasound and electrotherapy treatments, and by 4 weeks after I think I was 100% healed.

Since then I haven’t been doing nearly as much riding, and since I’m riding a geared 36 these days I don’t think the problem is likely to return. It was just too much riding in too short of a time and the camber seemed to make it much worse.

Sorry to hear you’re still healing David - don’t worry, it will heal, just be nice to it! It’s weird to get an elbow injury like that from a unicycle race. I sure hope Joe Myers heals well. He has a long road ahead of him I’m sure.

—Nathan

Yeah, I still have knee pain. The original injury was before RTL though. My health care provider decided to not approve my MRI, so I am not sure what the issue is, but I am paranoid to do any long distance riding. I have been bicycling a lot more and only doing muni (which doesn’t seem to affect my knees the same way as the 36er with short cranks).

I am going to try to schedule another appointment with the orthopedic to try to get the MRI. Cigna health insurance = horrible by the way. I tried jumping through the hoops of the insurance company but it was to no avail. I love how my company and I pay for my benefits only to be denied the insurance we pay for. I need to get in on starting an industry like that.

Hey,

It’s not RTL related but while my ACL is nicely healed up, I now have to go in for orthoscopy to repair a minor meniscus tear. It’s a pain but recovery should be faster than ACL surgery, at least. And overcompensation to the other leg from summer riding caused a minor case of achilles tendonitis, which has 99% healed now.

Through all this I learned a big lesson I wanted to pass on. We might like to think otherwise but unicycling alone (or any other sport) does NOT make you 100% whole - body fit. Visits to a physio identified quite a few muscle imbalances I had from getting fit from sports, not a gym.

It convinced me that no matter how boring it might be, effective lifelong gym training is really really important, including a few sessions with a personal trainer to set you up with the right exercises to target muscle imbalance.

Kris

Good advice, Kris. I normally don’t give gyms the respect they deserve, but, coming from you, I think I might rethink my position. I’m glad you’re getting back to normal again; it sure has taken enough time!

As for me, my knees are still really sensitive from my frisbee fall in Annapolis Royal the Saturday before RTL. Luckily, they never kept me off or slowed me down during or after, but I can’t do the same things with my knees that I could before, like wedging them against tree branches to get a better hold, or using them to support my body while climbing around and behind desks to run computer cords, etc. I don’t know if I’ll ever lose the scars… probably won’t, but that’s fine by me :stuck_out_tongue:

The people who should really be posting here are Johannes (German Speeders) and Joe (Puget Sounders), who really got messed up pretty bad. I know Johannes ended up with a chunk of one of his bones floating around somewhere else in his leg, which is why he occasionally became incapacitated by pain during his legs riding his geared 36.

I agree with Kris that muscle imbalance is an important concern for unicyclists, especially as we are pushing endurance limits more and more.

After breaking my nose at Cal MUni Weekend 3.5 weeks ago I took my first extended break (> 1 week) from unicycling since RTL. After my first ride back last Thursday of ~5 miles with ~400 feet of elevation on the road with a 29er I spent two days having a hard time walking. I noticed that my knees were unusually sore and not tracking quite right.

I’ve since been stretching, sticking with only relatively flat and short rides, and treadmilling to get my leg muscles more balanced. I think I’ll probably add trials into the mix soon. I’m not an expert, but all the jumping around and contorting my body seems to help keep my muscles more balanced than only riding distances.

I guess if we are talking about RTL induced muscle imbalances I did have some knee problems that first came up during my qualifying ride and I still have to do exercises every once in a while if my knees feel a bit off.

I can’t remember exactly which muscles were imbalanced but the doc that finally told me what was wrong said that it was an imbalance common in both cyclists and runners, no wonder it happened to me when i was unicycling almost every day and running a couple times a week to keep things balanced.

I should really start swimming more which would keep my knees balanced and what the hey I might get into doing triathlons :slight_smile:

For me, my hamstrings and glutes were underdeveloped compared to my quads, and the outside of my quads was overdeveloped compared to the inside. All this decreases knee stability and seems to require some pretty specific exercises to fix.

The “problem” with getting fit solely with sports is that we use technique to compensate with our strengths at the expense of our weaknesses. While we can fix this to some degree through cross-training, it’s not adequate for coming back from injury.

Kris

Kris

Youch! That sounds terrible! And yes, I’d love to hear how Joe is recovering. I wouldn’t be surprised if he keeps a blog. I searched but couldn’t find one.

Well, I’m seeing the PT tom’w and will write back about what exercises and other remedies are in store. I already have a TENS device that gives subcutaneous electrical stimulation to activate muscles and have been using it on my knee to some avail. It also seems to help with my tennis elbow. Sheesh. I hate exercising but will prolly have to do some of that, too. Luckily I have my own Bowflex and treadmill, neither of which has seen any use in a LONG time.