distance and knees

G rock

hi all,

firstly, this isn't a request for medical advice so mods, please let the enquiry stand!

having been out for the longest spin in quite a while yesterday, knees are fairly sore today.

just wondering if this can be completely eliminated by a proper saddle height or is some of it attributable to just plain wear and tear over a longer distance than usual?

ashleey

It just be the cold and age but check your measurements, then I would recommend a physio if you're really worried.

smacl

My experience, as a relative novice, is that I get much less knee pain now than I did starting out. Single biggest factor in my case, following some advice here FWIW, is to use a lower gear and a higher cadence (e.g. pedal fast rather than harder to achieve your desired speed). This includes changing into a lower gear sooner rather than as you can no longer peddle up the any further in the gear your in. The second thing is on a long spin, to take the odd break, get off the bike and stand up. I find even less than a minute more than suffices most of the time. Having someone look at your saddle height and riding position certainly can't do any harm either, wouldn't mind getting a bike fit myself some time.

12 sprocket

the knee pain is most likely to be the simple result of a big increase in mileage or speed than you have been used to. Why do so many people seem to think a bikefit is the answer to every little problem?

G rock

would tend to concentrate on a good high cadence anyway, for no other reason than i find i can go faster that way!

a bike fit isn't really on the agenda, was just gonna tinker with it myself.

ednwireland

muscles should ache joints and tendons shouldnt

if you've ramped up your mileage substantially recently with a bad setup you can do some damage (i should know 3 months of physio on a tendon)

cantalach

I am not a doctor or physio - I'm a software engineer. With that in mind...

It depends of where your knees are sore. Assuming it's the front, some possible reasons are:

• Saddle too low or too far forward.
• Insufficient float in the cleat-to-pedal interface. Alternatively, poorly or misaligned cleats.
• Tight quads.

Other factors:

• The cold or failing to dress properly for the cold - "if it's less than 15 degrees, cover your knees" is apparently what Sean Kelly says! This means covering your knees for much of the year in Ireland.
• Breaking the 10% rule, i.e. don't add more than 10% to your mileage in any week.

My first stop for something like this is always the Form & Fitness archive on CyclingNews.com.

Lumen

If it hurts, stop doing it.

If it continues to hurt, see a specialist.

You can do a lot with self-help, but I reckon it's worth getting checked out for any basic structural problems (e.g. leg length discrepancies) at least once in your cycling "career".

G rock

Lumen wrote: »

If it hurts, stop doing it.

If it continues to hurt, see a specialist.

You can do a lot with self-help, but I reckon it's worth getting checked out for any basic structural problems (e.g. leg length discrepancies) at least once in your cycling "career".

with a physio i'm assuming?

hasn't been a problem up to now, but did a couple of hundred k last week in total so thought that the increase in distance would have been the major factor.

would it be foolish to raise saddle a few mm to see if that improves things and go from there?

just have spd pedals so not sure if i can adjust float on cleats/position of cleats all that much so that leaves saddle height

Lumen

G rock wrote: »

would it be foolish to raise saddle a few mm to see if that improves things and go from there?

It's complicated, since your body can compensate for changes in saddle height with more or less ankling.

I have spent more hours reading about bike fitting than I have with physios, and I can categorically state that more information doesn't necessary help.

Honestly, without an experienced person seeing you on a bike it's impossible to say. You might cycle like Albert Contador, or like Fred Flintstone. The internet doesn't know.

I would just ease off for a week or so, change nothing, bring the distance steadily back up and see how you feel.

Getting a proper bike fit done is not a bad idea. There are loads of threads on this.

12 sprocket

lads, ive asked the question before why the rush to a bikefit? this cyclist has obviously been cycling merrily along with no problems until he ramped up the training mileage. So if he did'nt need a bikefit before this why does he need one now?

12 sprocket

ps just lower your training and train very easy for a few days and see what happens

Lumen

12 sprocket wrote: »

lads, ive asked the question before why the rush to a bikefit? this cyclist has obviously been cycling merrily along with no problems until he ramped up the training mileage. So if he did'nt need a bikefit before this why does he need one now?

I don't know if he needs one, and you don't know that he doesn't.

That's why the Charter prohibits giving medical advice.

G rock

thanks for all the advice.

will stick to commuting miles this week and pedal like even more of a granny than usual and see how things go!

kumate_champ07

12 sprocket wrote: »

lads, ive asked the question before why the rush to a bikefit? this cyclist has obviously been cycling merrily along with no problems until he ramped up the training mileage. So if he did'nt need a bikefit before this why does he need one now?

if you sit at a desk with bad posture for 1 hr every day you probably wouldnt notice much pain, increase that to 2hrs per day and you would start feeling pain.

increasing the duration of an activity will lead to the unveiling of errors in technique

seve65

Some good pictures to illustrate posture issues:
http://bikedynamics.co.uk/

This crowd in the uk emphasise custom in-soles as much as the bike fitting which they do with retul system:
http://www.profeet.co.uk/cycling/

CramCycle

Also could have been the cold, where you wearing shorts?

G rock

shorts? not as hardy as that!

fleece backed tights for me!

G rock

off the bike for the next few days i reckon.

commute home yesterday didn't feel too great.

having sat in traffic all morning i miss the bike already

12 sprocket

Are you back cycling yet?

michael196

History and occurrance :

for the first time ever , after years and years of high enough mileage , through all seasons, last week, with a significant ramping in mileage and speed, my right knee twinged !! and continues to twinge a little as I sit at this desk.

G rock

12 sprocket wrote: »

Are you back cycling yet?

nope, not yet, gonna give it til after the weekend.