cyclinfool

Lee - You don't have to accept it until you try a few things.
About 12 years ago I started getting knee pain at the 30 mile mark - particularly early in the season. If I tried to ride through it, it just got worse. It would get so bad that even a 12 mile ride was painful. I resigned myself to the thought that my long distance days and touring were over. I tried higher cadence, different seat positions, nothing seemed to work for me. Then one spring a few years back I felt that familiar onset during an early season ride again - when I got home I was rummaging around and found an old neoprene knee brace (really just a sock) and decided to try it. I went out and did 20 miles - no problem, 30 miles - no problem and so on. Last summer I did 4 centurys and countless metrics, road fast club rides and pushed hard. What I found was that early in the season I need to build back my leg strength before I push too hard and wear the brace for rides over 30 miles. Unfortunately I forgot that advice on a club ride this season and tweaked it again - but with the brace I am still able to ride. Monday it was 75 miles, had pain at the end but some ice took that away and yesterday morning I did an 18 mile easy recovery ride with only a little pain at the end. I am looking forward to a fast club ride this weekend of 50 miles on Sunday and a hill training set on Saturday. You bet I will be wearing my brace for both of these.

Some people will say it's all about seat position, some say it's all grinding big gears, some will say it's cadence - etc. For me it was developing legs strength first and supporting the knee while doing it. Once I have the leg strength I can run big gears, I can stand up hills and otherwise push hard to stay with the pack - try it too early in the season and I pull up lame.

My point is that you need to try things and find what works. You most likely will need to wait a week or two before you do so that the inflamation is gone - some say as much as 3 to 6 weeks.