bigbossman 

I rode my 8th century of the year on Saturday, and had a pretty miserable ride for a variety of reasons. One of which is an odd pain that I've never experienced before - the muscles directly behind my knees are very, very sore. I can bend my knees easily, but the muscles protest when I try to straighten my legs out again. It is definitely muscle related - not joint.

Nothing's changed that I know of on the bike and the ride wasn't terribly difficult, but my muscles started stiffening by mile 50 and from then on it was pedal a bit, stand and stretch, repeat.

Could this be nutritionally related? Overall, I was starting to feel generally lethargic after mile 30 or so, so maybe I was nursing a bonk. I didn't eat too well the night before (I ate, but made poor food choices - protein over carbs), and didn't really eat anything of substance until the 20 mile stop in the morning, after the first significant climb.

They're still pretty sore today, and so I've been taking it easy and knocking down ibruprophen to reduce any swelling that might be present.

So what gives? Even when I first started I never exeriienced this. What might be the cause - any guesses?

fixedfiend

my theory is that you dehydrated or bonked and your quads cramped up half way. Your hamstrings compensated for your quads not functioning causing the soreness behind the knee. Cooler temps might have also added to the tightening and soreness.
Happened to me a few weeks ago.

Impoliticus

could be that your ligaments are tight
I don't know what your stretching routine is, but I need to stretch everyday to keep my knees in good shape

Lucky07

Sounds like you bonked to me. Not total, but enough to beat you up. Not eating well the night before and then not until 20 miles in probably made it worse. Combine that with cooler fall temps (for Cali! ) and that might have done you in.

But you've obviously done enough centuries to know how to prep. Could be a combo of a lot of different factors.

mellowdave

I wonder if it was the fact that you just rode 100 miles....

SaddleBags

Same injury happened to me this weekend after a very easy metric. I didn't bonk, stayed very hydrated and felt no soreness behind the knee until later that night. It wasn't too cool - maybe low 60's. Two days later, there's still minor swelling and was still sore this morning (found that out when I tried to jump out of bed to get my crying baby - ouch!).
Good thing is that it only bothers me when I walk and not on the bike.

chipcom 

I've had it happen to me before. I believe you hyperextended your knees. It can happen from climbing/spinning in too high a gear and/or from a saddle that is too high. I had success overcoming the problem by taking a few days off, dropping my saddle a few mm and paying attention to my cadence.

DamnRock

that's usually a symptom of the saddle being too high... could be that maybe you bonked and started sitting way back on the seat to ge tmore power... thus extending your legs further than usual. That's a theory at least.

rock

Ostuni

exact same story here after doing a 75-miler on saturday (except for the crying baby part...)

reckon some good stretching afterwards would have been a good idea....

bigbossman 

I think you guys have hit the provebial nail on the head. During the first climb, my cassette body seemed to disengage and the whole drive train spun freely. This happened several times during the ride, so there were a few instances where I went from pedaling against resistance to suddenly freewheeling. also, I could not shift up to my big chainring, and so that may have played a factor...