Wow.. I thought I was the only one that suffered this problem..
Here is my story:-
I've always cycled everywhere since school and in 2010 I took the plunge and got a road bike.
In 2013 i was riding a reasonable 18mph avg speed everywhere, clocking up the miles and was on a mission to get super fit and lose weight.
I downloaded MyfitnessPal to my phone and reduced my calorie intake to 1200 calories, which in hindsight I think was the start of my troubles...
Everyone knows reducing calories is the most effective way to lose weight. I was still cycling and training hard which meant burning off 1000+ calories per day plus reducing my calories meant a massive deficit to my nutrition levels.
I know it sounds like I was being an idiot with this approach but losing two stone in 3 months, getting faster and stronger on the bike, getting more top ten Strava segment placings was just so addictive.
The day before my first sportive I was sitting on the floor playing with my dogs and it felt like acid and entered my left quad from the top and I could feel it pouring down the muscle. I was in agony so immediately stood up and tried to walk it off.. after an hour the pain had dulled.
The morning of the sportive I drove 50 miles in my car to the sportive with friends. I put the wheels on my bike and bang my left quad went again....I tried to walk it off but it wasn't stopping. The sportive started and i can tell you every pedal rotation hurt like hell. I was determined to complete the 75m sportive with my 5 mates. 10 miles in I was struggling to keep pace. Mates assumed it was cramping so was telling me to stand on my pedals and stretch...another miles and both quads were killing me..Mile 17-20 were a nightmare..I stopped at 20 miles and could barely get off my bike because of the pain.. I burst out crying and said something was wrong with my legs. I told the guys to carry on and I would just ride back to the start. After riding 10mph back and stopping multiple times i finally got back to the sportive start. I went to the toilet and my urine looked like coke cola!!! Not good. I drank 2 litres of water straight down and 30 minutes later my urine was back to normal colour. I sat in the sun and waited 3 hours for my mates to return and by the time they did my legs felt ok.
Following weekend after light cycling I was standing at the station waiting to go and watch the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park and bang both quads went.. I burst out crying in the middle of the station.. I couldn't bend my legs.. I hobbled like a robot to the taxi's and somehow got in the taxi and came home. My wife was a massive support trying to bend my legs so I could actually get in the taxi.. I thought I was going to pass out with the pain... I phoned up a mate and he gladly came over and grabbed the Stones tickets and went down to London.. gutting!!! 3 hours after sitting on the floor the pain subsided and I got up and started hobbling around.. My legs felt bruised and sore.
Monday lunchtime I decided to walk to the local bike shop which was 1 mile away... half way, bang.. both quads went.... I sat on the path with legs stretched straight out and was seriously deep breathing trying to control the pain...I remembered my daughter was at home so asked her to pick me up and take me to hospital.
After arriving at the hospital bloods were taken and the tests began. WIthin 30 minutes a nurse stuck electrical connectors on my feet, legs & chest as they thought I’d had a heart attack. I told them I was a keen cyclist and I felt fine apart from the agonising pains in my quads. They told me that my CK enzyme was 13,200 and normally these ‘CK Spikes’ happen after a heart attack. After ten minutes of monitoring my heart trace they was assured it wasn’t a heart attack… thank goodness!!!
I was then given a saline drip that was used to hydrate me and flush out any impurities that were collecting in my quads.. Unfortunately it took 3 days of saline drips in hospital to get my CK down to below 350.
I was booked into see a Neurologist a month or so after. After describing what I’d been doing with my nutrition and hydration he basically said that I’d damaged my body. He said it was an incredibly rare thing to see these CK Spikes and there’s no real way of treating them apart from Saline and rest and also not getting your body into a position for this to occur. He asked if I would provide blood for future analysis but didn’t promise any quick results.
Received a letter 1 year on but said CK analysis was still being planned at some point in the future.
2014 I think I overdid the cycling again and my legs started to go.. But the minute I started feeling the pain I drank 2 litres of water and ate some food and popped to my hosptial.. Damn my CK was 8000 so I spent 1 full day on saline.
2015 I went to Yosemite National Park in California. The plan was to hike to the top of Yosemite falls which was nearly an 8 hour hike. I carried 2 litres of water in a camebak which i know I had to ration so I had water for the entire trip.. That was a bad mistake. I hiked for 2 hours and bang both quads started to go.. I couldn’t believe I had a CK Spike half way up a mountain path.. I managed to waddle 30 minutes to the bottom of Yosemite falls and drank my entire camelbak of water and eat all the food I had in my rucksack. I sat around taking in the amazing waterfall for an hour then decided I had to get off the mountain.. I hobbled for 3 hours down the mountain path. Again I was walking like a cross between a 90 year old grandad and a robot (not being able to bend my legs more than a few degrees at my knees).
When I finally got to Yosemite Valley the pain was gone but my legs felt bruised. I went to the Cafe and drank 2 litres of water and had some cake and crisps. An hour later my legs felt even better.
Not issues in 2016 although I have twitches.. But I don’t know if that’s psychosomatic knowing if I get dehydrated and low in sugars I might spike..
Nothing so far in first 5 months of the 2017.
So here I am typing my CK Spike story.
What have I learned.
I think I damaged my legs in 2013 by training too hard and not getting appropriate nutrition and hydration. I don’t think I had enough protein to repair my muscles. If you look into CK and the way it works in the body it’s a grey area.. Pretty undiscovered. I have a friend who’s a chemist and he started reading papers on CK and he thinks I damaged my legs at a molecular level in the muscle cells
How can I stop this from happening for me?
Don’t overtrain i.e. not training every day
Rest is very important for cells to repair
Appropriate nutrition. So if I diet I don’t ride much and if I’m cycling I don’t worry too much about my diet.. Don’t diet and train.
Proper hydration. Last year I weighed myself naked on digital scales.. Cycled at normal pace for 1 hour with zero water..it was tough. Came home and weighed myself naked again and found I had lost 4kg!!! I know I’ve always been a sweaty guy but jesus, 4 kg per hour.. That’s double the fluid loss than an average guy will go through. So based on the 1litre = 1kg in weight I now have an idea how much I should be drinking each hour.. Although I find this impossible because I would need to be a camel.
I take each day at a time and try to have a more grown up approach to my body.
Are you guys suffering the same as me..It sounds like cramping but it doesn’t feel electical it feels like acid.. I know my CK level is spiking off the chart that’s why I call it Spiking.
Will my Consultant come back with his analysis… maybe one day?
Am I worried? Not really and especially now I’ve found in the last year I’m not alone in the world who’s gets these horrendous painful issues with their quads.
I hope some of my story might shed some light on your painful quad issues. I’m not a doctor so if you think you are Spiking get yourself to hospital ASAP and ask them to check your CK Enzyme levels.
Thanks for your time,
Matt
P.S. If you want to discuss more please feel free to contact me:-
matt@mattycross.com