onetrack
05-20-07, 03:02 AM
(Background:/)
For 3 months, I had been making 1-2 50 mile tours, and commuting. I pieced together a new bike (mistake 1, no pro fitting), and the first time I took it out, it felt so good that I rode a whole century.
The following week, I rode out to and back from a 65 mile group ride (totaling century #2). Afterwords, I felt a slight dull knee pain, not knowing knowing anything about the danger of overuse, I ignored it (mistake 2).
The next week, I rode another century, and finished strong, wanting to go further, but time constraints limited me to the century. Knee pain got worse than the last time when I was resting post-ride. Two days later, I was feeling strong and went for a 55 mile ride immediately before a 30 mile group ride. I ended up hammering through the hillly group ride as usual, till the last 8 miles. At this point my knee was killing me, to the point I was thinking of how I would get home if my knee gave up. I was severely disheartened by this (obviously), but mostly because I didn't feel tired in any way, my muscles/lungs/heart where still wanting me to keep pushing hard.
(/:Background)
I now know all about how a jump in miles like that is dangerous.
Anyway, for the reason I made this thread; I had started taking the maximum amount of ibuprofen the bottle allowed, and a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement (against my vegan diet), but still felt a dull annoying pain from inflammation. I work standing, so the preferable full resting of my knee is not an option. A friend recommended ginger to calm the inflammation and pain. I figured it was some kind of bs "hippy cure". Willing to do pretty much any thing to help the pain, I picked up a bag of candied ginger. While didn't completely stop the pain, I am left with only the slightest discomfort, and it did way more for me than ibuprofen. I think this candied ginger will make it's way into my list of mandatory long ride snack items when I recover.
For 3 months, I had been making 1-2 50 mile tours, and commuting. I pieced together a new bike (mistake 1, no pro fitting), and the first time I took it out, it felt so good that I rode a whole century.
The following week, I rode out to and back from a 65 mile group ride (totaling century #2). Afterwords, I felt a slight dull knee pain, not knowing knowing anything about the danger of overuse, I ignored it (mistake 2).
The next week, I rode another century, and finished strong, wanting to go further, but time constraints limited me to the century. Knee pain got worse than the last time when I was resting post-ride. Two days later, I was feeling strong and went for a 55 mile ride immediately before a 30 mile group ride. I ended up hammering through the hillly group ride as usual, till the last 8 miles. At this point my knee was killing me, to the point I was thinking of how I would get home if my knee gave up. I was severely disheartened by this (obviously), but mostly because I didn't feel tired in any way, my muscles/lungs/heart where still wanting me to keep pushing hard.
(/:Background)
I now know all about how a jump in miles like that is dangerous.
Anyway, for the reason I made this thread; I had started taking the maximum amount of ibuprofen the bottle allowed, and a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement (against my vegan diet), but still felt a dull annoying pain from inflammation. I work standing, so the preferable full resting of my knee is not an option. A friend recommended ginger to calm the inflammation and pain. I figured it was some kind of bs "hippy cure". Willing to do pretty much any thing to help the pain, I picked up a bag of candied ginger. While didn't completely stop the pain, I am left with only the slightest discomfort, and it did way more for me than ibuprofen. I think this candied ginger will make it's way into my list of mandatory long ride snack items when I recover.