Sciatica Again! – BionicOldGuy

I was feeling great last week doing some long brisk rides. But after a particularly hard ride last Wednesday, my sciatica flared up again badly, this time on the left side. For a couple of days it kept me awake act night because I could not find a sleeping position without severe pain radiating down the left leg. Fortunately after a couple of days of resting and no riding, it calmed down enough so since last Saturday onward I could sleep. On Saturday I did some easy arm cycling, and from then till now I’ve been able to do easy riding for 30 minutes, without any pain referring down the leg. So I think the inflammation is going down and the sciatic nerve is not being compressed much. I am also doing all the PT I know to open up the area. Over the next few days I’ll continue to slowly and easily ramp up my riding as tolerated. I know the drill from past experience, it can take up to two weeks of taking it easy for this to clear up. This episode was well timed because it’s been pretty rainy here lately so I didn’t miss as much by curtailing my riding.

Fortunately It had been several months since my last bout of this. I intend to keep my average daily training down to 90 minutes or less to avoid another recurrence. It had drifted up over two hours a day last week when the relapse hit. I will also try to do a better job doing PT to strengthen the muscles that stabilize the hip and lower back area.