AEsco48

what do you guys use?

alanbikehouston

Well, speaking as someone who routinely rides 150k (although spread out over a seven to ten day period), I would suggest a hot, hot looong bath (a "manly" guy would NEVER admit to that tub being filled with bubbles), followed by a nice Chablis, some Mozart, and maybe an aspirin or two.

Congratulations...especially if you completed the entire 150k in LESS than my personal best of about six days.

LordOpie

RICE: Rest Ice Compression Elevation.

I go RIICE... add in some ibuprofen

Never ever use compression if you might fall asleep unless directed by a doctor. Don't want the compression device to have a malfunction and cut off the blood supply

PS: A tasty wine Alan suggested is a very nice idea

pecosa

When you soak yourself in a hot bath and add epsom salt. Epsom salt is suppose to draw the lactic acid from your muscles as well. You can find it at your local drug store/pharmacy department.

coryg

For sore knees, icing is the best. Get a paper cup, fill with water, freeze. Now you have a nice block of ice that you can tear back the paper covering it use that to massage into the sore parts. Also take advil (or genaric).

Do you know what caused your sore knees? To hard of a gear and not spinning? Too many miles? Bike fit?

Knee pain is something that you should look to find the cause of an not repeat it.

Grendel

Funny you should ask, as I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my left knee after finishing the MS ride. This was my third ride, and this is the first time I've had any serious pain as a result. The left knee started tightening up a little bit Saturday night but didn't seem like trouble, but by midday Sunday it was obvious there was a problem. It's only my left knee - the right knee feels just fine - so I'm going to go check the cleat on my left shoe to make sure it didn't move or something. Anyway, RICE for the knee as already suggested, but I went for rum and orange juice instead of wine to go with a long soak in the jacuzzi tub.

oboeguy

If you're willing to spend a couple of bucks, go to a drug store and buy a couple of reusable icepacks. The good ones are sold with a sort of Ace-bandage-like sock to keep you from freezing your skin with direct contact. You can also get a couple of Ace wraps to keep the packs in place. You'll cool look like Patrick Ewing after a ball game (that dude always seemed to have his knees iced at the end of games!). I keep a couple of those packs in the freezer year round for sore knees and other accidental inflamations (e.g. crashes, stubbed toes, etc).

IIRC (don't quote me here), you should ice your knees ASAP after the activity for at least half an hour (I suppose the idea is to keep down swelling, which is a Good Thing(TM)).

Aleve (aka naproxen sodium), btw, kicks ibuprofen's butt.

rhenriksen

Okay, funny story. I did my first MS150, first century, hell - first ride over 50 miles last weekend. Took off like a rocket after I got tired of my teeth chattering in the cold, warmed up nicely w. hard riding. Ripped along in a good pace line for a while, got to Bellville at 9:15 -- right knee was starting to hurt a little, though.

By the time I got to the ~80 mile rest stop, I'd pretty much decided I had to quit. My knee hurt so badly I could barely lift my leg over the bike! I stumbled across an aid station, and asked them what they could do for me. Discovered BioFreeze & ibuprofen, felt a bit better, thought I'd at least take a stab at getting to the next rest stop.

Made it to the last stop, again could barely swing my leg over the bike. Limped off in search of Biofreeze. Got that, and some ice... and made it to La Grange. Got a couple of 10 minute rubdowns, and noticed that my right inner thigh was really tight and sore, too. Huh. I was pretty down about having this weak link in my body; the last year+ in the gym has had me in much better shape, stronger legs, my knees haven't hurt in a year, etc.

Sunday morning, my friend lied to me & told me the FedEx route was only 50 miles. Okay, I'll give that a try. Queued up in the line to get out of the Fairgrounds, and waited...and waited...and waited... with the other 12,999 people.

About an hour into my 1.5 hour wait to escape, I *finally* looked down at my bike and discovered that my seat was twisted about 15 degrees to the right! DOH! To my credit, I *did* have a toolkit on hand, and fixed that. Still stopped at the first break for more BioFreeze & ibuprofen, but then blew past the lunch stop & didn't pull in until the second to last stop, one more spot of ice & I didn't feel my knee at all through the last 14 miles & up the @#$%! hills in Austin.

It may have been a seriously blonde incident, but I got the combined high of finishing the MS150 and discovering that I didn't need any big fixes for my knee! It got better as the day wore on!

I found it pretty amazing that the seat alignment created such a huge pain in the joint. Admittedly, it was a hundred miles. I have a newfound appreciation for the team calling Lance 'Mr. Millimeter'