Another Sore Knees Cycling Thread
 

So I've been back on my bike a little more than 2 months now after years away. I've gone about 500 miles since the middle of February. Started on flats and now onto rolling hills with some relatively small climbs -- and one medium long one. I'm riding a converted 24-speed mountain bike, with slicks and new Speedplay clipless. My LBS has helped me adjust the fit of my bike (we ended up raising my seat a lot) and I'm having a blast.

I'm considering changing the chain ring as I've noticed I'm using the lower set of gears less and less. I experience zero problems on the bike except for some of the usual aches and pains of getting back into working out and riding regularly. Tuesday I did a fairly easy 15-mile ride with a couple of friends and we pretty much took it slow -- it was them not me. I wanted to go out harder though so on a few hills, I pedaled out ahead, tried to keep my gears high so I could get some burn in. I've felt stronger with each ride so I figured it was just a natural progression.

Only that night, my knees were barking at me all night. The pain is on the top of the knee and it's a dull ache as opposed to a sharp pain. More annoying than anything else. I took a couple of days off and in talking to a couple of veteran cyclists, was told to do more "spinning" on my rides so as not to stress my knees so much.

I did that on my ride tonight, deliberately sticking to the lowest gears for the most part and letting my legs spin and my knees warm into the ride. No pain during the ride but I'm noticing now (5 hours later) that the front of the knee pain (on the kneecap not above or below) is back again. Normally I would have iced them immediately after but I had to go out right away and didn't have a chance.

My questions: any thoughts on this and/or what I might be doing wrong? I'm starting to do more off-the-bike leg exercises to strengthen the muscles in my hips and knees but should I do more? Do any of you suggest specific exercises or stretches? And do you suggest I rest for longer than a couple of days (I'm averaging about 70-90 miles a week depending on the weather)?

I want to work up to longer and longer rides and bigger hills but I don't want to screw up and put myself on the shelf -- especially this time of year. I'm probably being overly cautious as there's no pain during my rides but I'm so addicted to cycling now, that I'm afraid I'm going to do something to screw it up. :(

Thanks in advance. I'm such a noob. :)

First, check this site: http://www.cptips.com/knee.htm It has some good information about knee pain.


"I wanted to go out harder though so on a few hills, I pedaled out ahead, tried to keep my gears high so I could get some burn in. I've felt stronger with each ride so I figured it was just a natural progression. ... Only that night, my knees were barking at me all night. The pain is on the top of the knee and it's a dull ache as opposed to a sharp pain."

This indicates to me that you took the hill in a gear that was too hard and too soon in your development as a cyclist. At the best, it will be just muscle strain and you'll be fine in no time. At the worst, it will be a case of quadrecep tendonitis which will take months to heal.

Whichever it is ... if you ride .... spin, spin, spin. And you may want to avoid climbing hills for a couple weeks.

One more idea: you might need a crankset with shorter pedal arms. Around the 56cm/58cm frame sizes most manufacturers change cranksets from 170mm to 175 mm. When I switched from 175's to 170's the occasional pain I had disappeared. It seems the 175's were causing me to 'over-rotate' and stressing my knees. The shorter pedal arms see to have corrected that and the pain has disappeared, even after doing rides where I'm going up and down hills.

You've only been back riding for two months so might be overdoing it a bit so make sure you're not increasing your distance and/or effort on these rides too quickly. If your knees got to the point of barking you might have to take it easy for a few weeks; keep a decent cadence and avoid that burning feeling. Don't worry about keeping up with others. You'll hopefully be as good as new in no time.

Check you seat post, it may have started to slip a bit. I found my ideal distance by measuring from the center of the crank to the top of the seat. I wrote it down, when i checked it after a while it had slipped slowly about 1 inch. Thats when the top of my knees started to hurt and ache. Once i put it back up my pain in my knees went away. I put a small piece of tape at the bottom of the seat post where it goes into the frame, if it starts to slip again the tape will reveal it. So far it has stayed the same. I still check every so often just to make sure it stays there.

All great advice. Thank you SO much. I went out today -- it was a long ride but I kept the cadence up and the gear low. I went MUCH slower than normal (everyone else on the road today passed me :-() but I kept on going and conquered a new route in the process. My knees feel good. I'll probably rest a day or so (it's supposed to rain tomorrow here anyway) and then get out there again. I'm going to take it easy as I go -- that feels like smart advice.

LAriverRat: I checked my seat height and it's the right height (I marked it with tape because I sometimes put it in my back of my car and have to drop the seat to fit it). But I'll keep an eye on it.

Surfrider - I'll check my cranks for sure. I'm getting some work done on my bike this week and I'll ask the mechanic at my LBS what he thinks. Thanks!

Installing a pair of "Kneesavers" will take care of a lot of the causes of knee pain while doing no harm whatsoever to you or bike.

http://www.kneesaver.net/

Thank you. I seem to be pointing my toes inwards for some reason. It seems to be asasociated with knee pain.


This may be because I want more Q factor, and to keep my knees further apart. I see that pedal shaft extenders are only about 6USD from China.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale...psort=1&page=1

But it seems that toeing in results in bringing my knees inwards, which is I presume what I am attempting to do.

OP.do you stretch your hamstrings? Are they tight? Do you keep your knees warm? Tight hamstrings and cold knees are bad news if you are prone to chrondomalcia patellae. Sadly, you won't know you are prone until you've broken those "rules" and now have to live with it. Google chrondomalacia patellae. It now has a new name I haven't learned yet, but when you see the articles, it will come up.

I was diagnosed 40 years ago with CP and have had to live with it ever since. (There are two options to "cure" it. Knee replacements and death.)

Thank you. I am stretching my hamstrings recently and they are tight. I will keep stretching. There are a lot of good stretch videos on YouTube. I have not noticed my knees getting cold but I will bear that in mind since I have googled that disease and it sounds horrible, that I may be starting to get it.

I also think I have some success with glucosamine and pulling on my knees by going for rides using only my upswing using cleated pedals. I recommend that you give that a try as I write here, before you die or get your knees replaced.

I may try the pedal shaft extenders, but as I write above, I think that my toe-in stance suggests I am attempting to ride in a narrower Q factor.

That said, I have thought that I have wide hips before since hollow saddles are so important to me, and perhaps the toe-in stance was just poor cleat adjustment. I have ordered a pair of the extenders, since it should not hurt to try them out briefly, especially in view of the severity of the issue, as you kindly point out.