dave.lloyd

Yesterday morning towards the end of my ride, I noticed that my left knee was a bit sore. No big deal, I thought. I've been off the bike for a week while on our annual inactivity vacation and it's cold out. The rest of the day, I noticed some soreness, but no big deal I thought. That night, while riding home, I noticed that my left knee was still sore. Well, I'll just take it easy. About mile 3ish or so, it became excruciatingly painful. So much so that I had to ask my very pregnant wife to ask our neighbor to watch the kids and pick me up with the beater truck.

Basically the pain is in the back of my knee from about three inches below to three inches above and hurts when I flex the joint. I was able to go see the doctor today and he thinks that it's either a stretched tendon or a slightly torn meniscus. If it doesn't go away by Mondayish, then sounds like I'm going in for a MRI. The doc says that I should be able to get by with just PT and no surgery if it is the meniscus.

So for at least this week I'm off the bike and using ice twice a day with ibuprofen.

The funny thing is that I can't think of what it is that I did to injure myself. Maybe I'm just starting to get old.

HardyWeinberg

ouch, good luck. Drink a lot of water too.

e0richt

knee pain from biking is usually from an incorrect seat height. Seat height needs to be reset periodically because things change if you lose or gain weight...

dave.lloyd

This is the first time I've had any issues with my knees at all. Usually if I get any pain it's in my right foot. I suspect that my toebox may be too wide for my Northwave MTB shoes.

My knee is feeling tons better every day, so I'm optimistic that it's just a pull and not anything I'll need surgery for.

I think that the injury may have been caused by a variety of factors: taking a week off, pulling the kids around on a toboggan, and one lap (though that shouldn't have done it even though the skates were a craptacular fit) of ice skating. And I'm getting older. Bummer!

chickPEA

Be careful. A few years ago I tore my meniscus and I could barely walk. It was in college right before finals so I couldn't see the doc for about 2 weeks. By the time of my appointment it felt so good that I figured I had pulled something and it had healed. I went to the doctor anyhow and turns it out it was indeed torn, pretty bad in fact. I needed surgery. Anyhow, what I'm saying if you start exercising again and feel even the slightest pain get an MRI. Best to take care of it before it gets bad enough for surgery.

dave.lloyd

Thanks for the advice.

Right now my commute is my exercise. I'm doubly pissed off because I'm arguing with the health insurance company about coverage for an ultrasound and I can't work out my stress with a bike ride. I know that I'll get dinged for the MRI on my deductible, so I'm trying to avoid that right now.

I figure on trying a short ride this weekend if I feel better.

cerewa

If you're like me, the knee pain is caused by a tendency to pedal in high gears because you want to go fast.
I like to speed on the bike but I need to remember that the two ways to get a lot of power are to mess up my knees or to make sure my cadence is at least 90rpm. (measured without a cyclocomputer, but I have a pretty accurate idea of what 1 second is and what 3 cycles per 2 seconds is)

dave.lloyd

I thought I was spinning fast enough, but maybe not. I think I've b@stardized my Euro style city bike enough with clipless pedals. A cyclocomputer would only add insult to injury.

Come to think of it, I did mash up a hill that day. Nothing worse than I've done before, but maybe that was the day that did it.