Road Bike Racing - colored athletic tape and how to tape a knee?

So I was soft pedaling on my last lap of a recovery ride on Friday when my left knee decided not to work properly on one pedal stroke. There was a sharp pain immediately to the medial side of my kneecap, towards the top at the base of the quadriceps, and then discomfort persisted the rest of the evening. My muscles were really tight after the ride (maybe I didn't get the blood pumping enough), but I tried to stretch to see if that would help. The area was hot, but not visibly inflamed. I iced it after the ride, massaged the quads, and put on some muscle rub. I have looked at anatomy charts, and I can't figure out what this is, but maybe it's part of the quadriceps tendon. It is not so far medial to be the MCL.

I went on a fast group ride today, which turned out to be a dumb idea. Now the knee feels like there's a rubber band popping over the bone every time I do a deep bend of the knee or extend it from that position. There's a tendon or ligament that feels very tight right there--just adjacent to the patella, exactly to the side up towards the quads. It also throbs a bit as I sit around.

It didn't really hurt much once I warmed up, but the post-ride pain means I did something worse to it today. The bad thing is that I have a training camp to go to in some really hilly terrain next weekend, so I need some advice.

I've been icing it, rubbing it down with analgesic stuff, and taking Advil. I plan on taking as many days off, starting tomorrow, as it seems to need, but I know soft tissue injuries can take forever to heal. I need a way to handle this for 2 days of riding at the training trip. 1) Where can I get a hold of that colorful athletic tape that I see everyone wearing? 2) Any ideas on what exactly I've strained? Anyone have experience with this? and 3) If I do find the tape, how do I tape up the knee? I've seen guys with strips of tape around the outside of the knee.

Of all the injuries I've had, I've never really injured a knee before, so I'm feeling very clueless.

Thanks!

(go see a doctor...says the gent who lost 2 seasons of racing and part of his knee)

Not a general practitioner either, go see a sports med doctor, or a good physical therapist.

That said, it sounds like you've got a pretty normal, and generally easy to treat case of PFPS aka runner's knee. Google it, and you may agree with that assessment. Fortunately you can do a lot of stretches and exercises that should help clear it right up.

I don't have an orthopedist in this area yet, but I'm looking for one.

It's feeling a lot better today after a good night's rest. I think something got tight and just slid over the bone wrong, causing irritation and inflammation. A physical therapist I used to see said that when I got pain in this part of my knee, it was probably from my really tight hamstrings, so I suppose it could be the beginnings of PFPS, but the symptoms seem atypical in terms of location.

Anyone know about where I can get the good tape? I assume there's a reason all the cyclists use it as opposed to the typical drugstore stuff, which I don't like. I looked up some taping techniques and found a couple brand names. Is this it? http://www.kinesiotape.ca/producttape.htm

Uh... don't try to fix this yourself. I've seen way too many people with life-long permanent knee injuries that not only takes them out of cycling, but requires using crutches or a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. GO SEE A DOCTOR! And then hook up with a PT or sports-physiologist and have them come up with a training-regimen to prevent this from becoming a permanent problem.

The PT you mentioned has the right idea, you must follow their advice. You'll need to change your routine, most likely including more stretching exercises. You may even need some strength-building exercises in the gym to strength the ligaments that hold the knee together. Fix the problem, not the symptoms.

Point taken.

If it is part of the quadriceps tendon then I know what a PT would tell me to do. In the past, he said pain a while into a workout meant that my hamstrings had gotten too tight and my quads weren't "awake" yet. That could be what happened, since I ended the ride tight and not loose, and I was only cruising around 140bmp heart rate for most of the recovery spin. I usually don't do strict recovery rides, so that could be why this is a new thing...? The other knee felt tight at the lower end of the same muscle. The new part is how rubberband-like the tendon or ligament felt next to the kneecap. It didn't pop, but it felt like it slid across the bone in an awkward and painful way. I'm kind of used to that sensation in my ankle. Anyway, the PT said I just needed to get the blood in the quads pumping before doing that kind of lower intensity spinning (general pain would happen when I was on a regular exercise bike rehabbing my ankle at a pretty low intensity relative to my usual cycling). So he'd have me to leg lifts and quads extensions first. He said stretching wouldn't do much (and it hasn't made it feel any better now). The quads just had to fight too hard against tight hamstrings.

Since it could take me a while to get in to see an orthopedist or to get a referral to a PT from my GP, I was just looking for a way to support the kneecap and quads in the meantime. It took orthopedists 4 months to finally get a diagnosis for my (chronic and now life-long) ankle injury, so if something really serious is going on, I'd like to support the joint and not really mess things up while I find doctors and get it figured it out.

For anyone interested who may have weird things going on in their knees...

I've got inflammation of the medial plica. http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/node/475

I'm supposed to ice it like crazy, take Advil or some other anti-inflammatory, stretch, and keep the guads strong, especially the VM. At some point, they may want to send me to a guy at UVA with my bike to have my pedaling analyzed with a bunch of sensors on my knees.

I've gotten the OK to go do a training camp this weekend in WV, but I'm supposed to just spin light gears as much as possible. Super.

You're in DC area, right?

http://www.herndonmassage.com/about.php

call for an appointment, ask for Pierre (if he's in town, I cant remember). He's the best. A former pro cyclist turned soigneur, with tons of stories and knows cycling related injuries.

if you're going to the RTR, you'll be spinning "little" gears, but it wont feel "light"

Thanks! I definitely need a good massage therapist around here. The doctor I went to is a cyclist, and it is definitely nice to see someone who has a clue about that.

We're going to the Lost River Barn. I'm not really excited about doing a lot of climbing with the knee issue, but there will be a slower group that I can ride with.

MDcatV, I don't see anyone on the website named Pierre. Do you just have to special request him or something?

aic, fwiw, that's what I dealt with/am dealing with. They cut mine out, still not perfect. Hope your's goes better.

So I was soft pedaling on my last lap of a recovery ride on Friday when my left knee decided not to work properly on one pedal stroke. There was a sharp pain immediately to the medial side of my kneecap, towards the top at the base of the quadriceps, and then discomfort persisted the rest of the evening. My muscles were really tight after the ride (maybe I didn't get the blood pumping enough), but I tried to stretch to see if that would help. The area was hot, but not visibly inflamed. I iced it after the ride, massaged the quads, and put on some muscle rub. I have looked at anatomy charts, and I can't figure out what this is, but maybe it's part of the quadriceps tendon. It is not so far medial to be the MCL.

I went on a fast group ride today, which turned out to be a dumb idea. Now the knee feels like there's a rubber band popping over the bone every time I do a deep bend of the knee or extend it from that position. There's a tendon or ligament that feels very tight right there--just adjacent to the patella, exactly to the side up towards the quads. It also throbs a bit as I sit around.

It didn't really hurt much once I warmed up, but the post-ride pain means I did something worse to it today. The bad thing is that I have a training camp to go to in some really hilly terrain next weekend, so I need some advice.

I've been icing it, rubbing it down with analgesic stuff, and taking Advil. I plan on taking as many days off, starting tomorrow, as it seems to need, but I know soft tissue injuries can take forever to heal. I need a way to handle this for 2 days of riding at the training trip. 1) Where can I get a hold of that colorful athletic tape that I see everyone wearing? 2) Any ideas on what exactly I've strained? Anyone have experience with this? and 3) If I do find the tape, how do I tape up the knee? I've seen guys with strips of tape around the outside of the knee.

Of all the injuries I've had, I've never really injured a knee before, so I'm feeling very clueless.

Thanks!

Medial Meniscus, most likely.

You should see an orthopedic/sports medicine type, as some of these injuries actually require surgery. If that's really what it is, I don't know of any taping tricks that will take the place of resting it so it heals. All the usual diagnosing-over-the-interwebs caveats apply, but that sounds like what you're describing.

For anyone interested who may have weird things going on in their knees...

I've got inflammation of the medial plica. http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEnotes/node/475

I'm supposed to ice it like crazy, take Advil or some other anti-inflammatory, stretch, and keep the guads strong, especially the VM. At some point, they may want to send me to a guy at UVA with my bike to have my pedaling analyzed with a bunch of sensors on my knees.

I've gotten the OK to go do a training camp this weekend in WV, but I'm supposed to just spin light gears as much as possible. Super.

Ah... that was the other possibility. ;)

Yeah, the ligaments and all were totally fine.

pinky, he did say that it sometimes calls for surgical removal, but we're trying not to go there anytime soon. Since the other leg isn't 100% there either on palpitation, I'd rather just work on bike positioning or something. He said my knees point towards each other a tiny bit. Of course, if I go too toe-out, I start getting tendonitis somewhere on the lateral side, so it will be about fine-tuning. My KEOs are getting a little worn, so I'm going to start by replacing those. Who knows, maybe it wouldn't be a horrible thing if I needed surgery. Then they might as well do that cartilage transplant to my ankle. I just hope it really is the plica and that I am not getting osteochondral lesions in the knee now too. That's the only thing the doctor is really afraid of with my awesome medical history.

Yeah, I got put through about a year of them hemming and hawing, then deciding it was the plica, being sent back to PT (which did jack) then finally demanded they just cut the damn thing out. Everything is bearable now at least, still some irritation but that still might be from scar tissue and the like.

I did end up getting a high end fitting which made a large improvement on everything cept the existing injury though.

I've gotten fit a couple of times. The last one was on the new frame with measurements I'd taken on the old frame after changing saddles between then and the previous fit. I had played around a good bit with the new saddle for a few weeks after I got it. They said they thought it was a little low, but I have a fair amount of heel drop, and if I raise it, the backs of my knees get pissed when I do a lot of climbing. I do raise it a couple mm when I go visit my parents and ride only on the flats. They also said the knees were very slightly in front of the pedal spindle. This is where I feel like I have the smoothest pedal stroke and can put out the most power. They said that if it were to bother my knees, it would probably be a jumper's knee thing, like to the front or below the patella. I've had the same setup for many months with no issue. I did change shoes a couple months ago. In the past, when my Keos get too worn on my stopping foot (the side that hurts now), I will get some knee discomfort that tells me to change cleats. Usually just one corner wears down the most, so I guess it messes up my alignment somehow. I changed to grip cleats on the newer shoes, so maybe the wearing of the rubber is doing something different? I dunno, but I'm changing cleats anyway.


How did they do the final diagnosis for you? Did you get an MRI?