Wow, I feel your pain... I think...

I had terrible knee pain that suddenly showed up after a long hike at Ricketts Glen SP. It didn't hurt when I stopped walking but every step down (especially stairs) was agony. Eventually it went away and I thought maybe my hiking boots were the culprit. So I took it easy on following hikes and avoided wearing the boots thinking I had solved the problem. Fast forward to Glacier Natl' Park Highline Trail. During the "descent" that familiar pain came ROARING back, I was ready to just lie down and be fed to the bears it hurt so bad... Took me a couple of weeks of babying my knee before I got back to normal.

In between these times I was frequently cycling and had never experienced this knee pain in relation to any those rides. So here I am thinking that maybe I should focus on the low impact exercise that cycling provides and avoid strenuous hiking or even attempting jogging.

When I got married, the wife (much smarter than me but that's no great feat btw) encouraged me to start jogging.
"But my knee!" I protested.
"Have you ever used a Foam Roller?" she replied.

Well, no I hadn't! Nor had I ever even HEARD of such a thing! However, I had at THAT point identified the pain as an ITB issue that I thought I could "stretch" my way out of (I couldn't). So, per her instruction, I started "rolling" and holy bologna did it hurt like the dickens!!! But you know what? The knee pain VANISHED!

So there I was, still cycling and commuting and NOW jogging with judicious "roll-outs" before and after. Then we had the BRILLIANT idea that we should load as much crap as possible into a trailer, hook it up to my bike, and go on a 110 mile RT tour to a local campground, Inks Lake SP... We packed everything and I mean EVERYTHING… except the foam roller... I feel like I've telegraphed this punch pretty well to you, but just in case I haven't COMPLETLY bored you with my tale of woe in wall of text form, I shall continue:

Getting there was fine with no issue except that the load was too heavy and the going was too slow, but it was mercifully pain free. During the return trip, however, the horrible knee pain reared its head and sidelined me completely. Until that point I had not had the ITB issue on the bike and had assumed it was only a problem when jogging or hiking.

So, I know you're not saying you have an ITB issue, HOWEVER, if you haven't tried rolling your leg out with a foam roller to help with knee pain, I recommend it. It may hurt to roll at first (like rubbing a VERY tender muscle) but the benefits were nothing short of miraculous for me!

Hope things improve for you!

/never had a professional “bike fitting”
//my bikes are extremely adjustable
///If it hurts, stop, think, grok, then adjust your bike… MAGIC!