numb toes & fingers

[Holt]

I did the AZT 300 a few weeks ago. My toes and thumbs have been numb every since. my grip is very weak. I did a ride good this past weekend and my braking fingers are still sore and don't work real good.
How long should this last?  Should I be concerned or just wait it out. I don't really use doctors unless its something bad?

[AZTtripper]

This came up somewhere in the discussion thread. Your not the only one that's for sure. It's a slow process but you'll get back to normal in the end.

[Done]

This is, unfortunately, pretty common. For most people, recovery seems to take a few months. After the CTR last year, I had a couple of numb toes for 3-4 months.

The first time I finished the CTR, my hands took a LONG time to recover--2-3 months. Changing my riding position (more upright with a shorter stem) and properly positioning my Ergons helped a lot last year. I still finished with a sore wrist and a little numbness in my pinkies, but in a couple of weeks I was back to normal.

The moral of the story: You will recover, slowly. Next time, work on your position and contact points so that it won't be so bad!

[RossC]

Holt,

A few toes on my left foot are still numb from AZT too. I've had it happen quite a few times before and healing time has been anywhere between months and years depending upon what I do to aggravate the situation again. It's just something that happens, don't freak out, in my experience, it sorts itself out.

My hands were fine after AZT and I was on a rigid. In the past, I've completely destroyed my hands while riding a 4 inch dually to the point of not having enough grip strength to operate a clothes peg for several weeks after a ride. The dually was set up in an XCO race position - long and low putting lots of weight on my hands. My rigid is much more upright and is much better on the hands. YMMV

[Holt]

thanks, I was getting a little worried. I hope to do more of these endurance events and didn't want this to sideline me in the future.

[Mark_BC]

Peripheral nerves (outside the spinal chord) do heal eventually as long as they haven't been severed. Spinal chord nerves don't heal. But I would not assume it's OK and do it again -- they can only take so much abuse. Fix the issues so it doesn't happen.

[schillingsworth]

Holt, I had considerable numbness in my toes, mostly my right foot, after the Coco250 last year. It took a few months to finally go away, but I took a strong look at my cleat position and made a small maybe 1/32" adjustment and after the AZT300 I didn't experience any numbness. As others have stated, check your setup. It may be the smallest of adjustments that help the most.

Hope to see you out there again!!

[trebor]

Peripheral nerves (outside the spinal chord) do heal eventually as long as they haven't been severed. Spinal chord nerves don't heal. But I would not assume it's OK and do it again -- they can only take so much abuse. Fix the issues so it doesn't happen.

Agreed... get that fit dialed in. Each time I get it, it gets a little worse and recovers a little bit less than 100%. I've discovered that if my gloves are too form fitting, that's when the tips of my fingers go numb. That usually goes away in a week or two. If I get wrist pain that leads to larger areas of numbness, that will take many months to bounce back.

Compression socks also make my feet numb if I ride in them versus just sleep in them... YMMV