Rocket Richard

Well, it goes like this. My team has a 2 man time trial next weekend and we were all out doing about a 70 miler on our TT bikes for the past month to get some saddle time on them; you know just to get your body used to the uncomfortable position you will be in for 10 miles, especially your neck! We have a hill that everyone usually shoots for kinda like an intense interval and I kept it in a pretty big gear while powering up the hill. After about a mile after the hill there was a burning sensation just to the lower right of my knee cap on my right leg. When I say lower right, while I'm looking at my own knee. The pain tapers off for about 4 inches toward my shin. Good thing, I do a lot of one legged drills, because I couldn't use my right leg but about 20% until I got home. It doesn't hurt when I walk, just pedaling. I jumped on the bike again this morning and it was still hurting like hell while pedaling but not walking. I started to spin for a while and it started to go away but I decided to get off of it. Any intellegent opinions out there to help me diagnose this. Mainly I want to know if I need to heat it or ice it, what meds could I take? And so on. I have no swelling but just unbearable pain while pedaling..thanks

acathi_cyclist

Shin splint? Probably not though. Usually associated with running downhill on your heels, which uses the muscles on your shin to slow yourself down. You use your calves when cycling.

DannoXYZ 

Mashing up the hill in the big gear probably put a lot of stress on your knees. My guess is there's some cartilage damage under the patella. Initial treatment right after getting off the bike is to ice it for about 15-20 minutes. No longer or else you'll risk tissue damage. The main reason for ice is to prevent/reduce swelling. After that amount of time, the max amount of swelling will have occured and you've minimized it. Rest easy for a couple hours, take some anti-inflammatories. Then use some heat to get the circulation going to speed up the healing. Get it checked out by a doc, they may need to x-ray it. There maybe some other pre-existing condition and the hard push on the ride may have just sent it over the edge. Take it easy for a while.

2Rodies

I had an injury last year that sounds remarkably simular. What mine ended up being was there is a sheath that surrounds your muscles. On the muscle that runs along your shin the sheath got folded over and was rubbing along the shin bone. I could run, walk do just about anything but if I peddled my bike the pain was really bad. After a three different doctors and month off the bike it wasn't getting better. My coach recommended this physical therapist and he does this very painful deep tissue massage. When I say painful I've never been in this type pain before, even after breaking my leg. Anyway after he was done he told me to go ride my bike and ride it hard. Keep in mind before seeing him I could get out of my driveway. I went home and did a 2 hour ride with zero pain.

oly

Weird, I did the same thing (over excerted going up a hill in a high gear) but I only get a pain when I run. I can lift weights, walk, ride but just can't run. I run for about 4 minutes and I get this shooting pain to the lower outside of my right knee.

I went to the ortho and had a MRI, Bone Scan and X-ray all to no avail. Doc said take some extra strength advil and take it easy for awhile. This was 6 months ago and I still can't run. I'm going to give the deep tissue massage a try. My running friends diagnosed it as an IT band sprain, might be but I feel I've given it plenty of time to heal

Rocket Richard

Please keep us informed, I tried the deep tissue massage myself and I can feel all sorts of different pain after rubbing, but what a relief when I start to walk again. I'll start riding again in 2 weeks.

Markio

I had the same problem, I'm fairly confident that I figured it out.

I had a severely everted running style, so that when I landed on my foot the energy wasn't displacing well and twisting the tibulus(?) bone near the shin and the muscle around it. It was twisting that bone so severely that I would be lucky to make it past a mile before I could hardly walk on it. The best thing I can recommend is a custom-fitted running shoe that won't allow you to land awkwardly -- it'll act like a crutch. Thats what I did, and it fixed it (mostly.) I can compete with all my friends in all their sports except I can't run for beans and its really disapointing.

oly

Hey Markio - Thanks for the tip

Richard - Sorry for hijacking your thread here.

I emailed this thread to my wife and her reply was "let's go get you some custom running shoes this weekend" so thanks to you all I got the ok to get some (hopefully expensive) new shoes!!!!

I also wanted to get your thoughts on another diagnoses I received from a guy in my tri club. He thought it might be due to my speedplay pedals. He claims he got a bad knee from them because the added float allowed him to get into bad pedaling position and has since switched to dura-ace? I don't feel this is the case but just wanted to throw out another opinion i received.

Bontrager

1. Unless you have vascular comprimise always ice an acute injury.
2. NSAIDS like Ibuprofen unless you have a problem with it or you're already taking something similar.
3. Go see an orthopedist ASAP.

**Disclaimer: I'm a doctor but not your doctor. Don't believe anything in my post without consulting with your own physician.

Guest

Go see a doctor! What the heck are you asking someone who hasn't looked at it or laid hands on it for?

Koffee

wagathon

Outside of the knee? Could be ITB. If so, stretching, not ice/heat.