Posts Tagged ‘Knee pain’

Brought to my knees

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

My 44 year old body has taken quite a beating since I started riding the bicycle. I’ve had my share of spills — some my fault and other ones that happened because of other riders’ mistakes. These falls have left me with some aches and pains that I call “the new normal.” However, there is one pain that is getting me now that didn’t even happen on the bike.

I’ve broken thumbs and fingers. They don’t bother me at all. Sometimes they get a little stiff, but I don’t notice it much.

I’ve broken my neck. I’ll admit that I do notice that one when I time trial or get low in a tuck. I can bend my neck for long periods of time without it starting to ache. Still, I’m so used to it I don’t really think about it.

One of the mystery injuries that has stayed around for years is my hip pain. Basically, I ALWAYS have some pain in my hip. It just varies in the amount of pain. I’ve learned to deal with it by stretching and deep tissue massage. The good news is it rarely hurts when I’m riding the bike.

So, what am I dealing with now? My knees. I’ve never had trouble with my knees while riding. However, earlier this year I decided to do some cross training and play basketball. I ended up with “jumpers knee.”

Both knees directly below the kneecap get inflamed and are tender to the touch. At times I will wake up in the middle of the night because I have intense pain in one or both of my knees. The funny thing is that I can lay on my stomach, stretch out my legs with my toes pointed and the pain will subside.

I beginning to think I was making progress in dealing with it until I went out on Monday to do FastPedal intervals. This is part of the Time-Crunched Cyclist plan. This means I was to do 4 x 2 min. high cadence intervals. For me that means around 120 rpm. Any faster than that and I find it hard to keep from bouncing.

That really caused me issues. As I sit and type this I can feel the dull ache. I know when I stand up that the pain will be a bit sharper.

I really enjoy basketball. It was my favorite sport to play in high school and college. Right now, I’m wishing I had never picked up that basketball this winter.

Anybody out there know what I’m talking about? Have you ever had this pain? What do you suggest I do about it?

The good news is that I have several days in a row of easy riding. This weekend I will be off the bike completely due to a conference. I imagine just giving my knees a break will be a help.

I don’t want this knee pain to bring me to my knees this season.

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Posted in Life | 1 Comment »

Spinning through the pain

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Back on the Ride to Austin, my team rode through a tropical storm. We were on the bike from mid-night to shortly before 6AM. The wind was swirling the rain around and for the last hour the temperature dropped drastically. We pushed on to reach our destination and made it, but not without cost.

Since that time I have been battling some knee pain. Recently it got bad enough to get me to set up an appointment with my doctor. No way did I want to have this knee take me out of my training plan right when I’m getting started!

I was focusing on that one night as the cause of the pain. It made sense to me that I was over exerting the knee while pulling on the front into the various cross and head winds. The cold temperatures certainly would help in that case. This caused me to put all my focus on the knee.

Well, I’m starting to realize that the root of the problem probably isn’t the knee at all. The issue starts with my hip and an accident that happened back in September. I’m pretty sure I am correct because I have done some things that have helped and the knee pain has lessened.

Back in the South Carolina Road Race Championships I was taken out from behind. It put me in the dirt along the side of the road, broke my frame, and left me with a VERY sore body along with some gnarly road rash. I’m still feeling the affects of the crash in my neck and it turns out in my right hip as well.

The pain in my hip has subsided. However, as I began to do the various exercises associated with my training routine, I discovered that my right hip was not nearly as flexible as my left. On top of that, when I went to get re-fitted to my bike as part of my plan, we discovered that I was dropping my right hip. That is odd because while I may have some weaknesses as a rider, I have always had a pretty perfect symmetry on the bike.

The doctor will give me more insight I am sure, but what I think is happening here is that the right hip is not free enough to carry through with the normal range of motion. It is causing me to drop my right leg when I am riding which is throwing my knee in an awkward position. That in turn is causing the pain.

I started aggressively stretching my hip when I began to suspect this. I am already starting to tell a difference. Not only is my knee not hurting as badly, but I’m starting to notice my right hip is not as tight when I am on the bike. It is as though I didn’t notice just how tight I was until I loosened up a bit.

So, my plan is to go to my doctor who will probably refer me to someone in the physical therapy field. I also plan to check out a chiropractor (something I have never done) and check on the alignment of my pelvic bone. Until I can learn more, I’m just going to keep stretching out that hip and trying to keep the pressure off the knee as much as possible.

It seems that getting a coach and starting this training program is going to be good for me. Not only do I think it will make me a better rider. I also realize it is causing me to take more seriously the messages my body is sending me. Rather than just stopping and waiting for the pain to go away — which could end up causing long term issues — I am now facing the issues and trying to find the solution.

Ultimately, this bit of pain could lead to me feeling better than I have in a long, long time.

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Posted in Life, Training | 2 Comments »

Don’t forget your seat. You will feel it in your knees.

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Looks like I’m pretty error prone lately.  Things haven’t worked out exactly as I planned on several fronts.  One instance involves my camera and the other my bicycle saddle.

Camera issue first… I had this idea to tape my camera to the front fork of my bike.  I would then go over Paris Mountain and record the descents.  The plan was to get a “wheels eye” view of the road.

I was able to get it securely fastened and headed off for my attempt.  I turned the camera on and started down the Furman side.  It struck me that this was the first time I had attempted this since February when I broke my finger.  That got into my head a little bit and I certainly wasn’t bombing it down.

At the bottom I turned the camera off and then started back to the top.  It was now time to record the descent to State Park Road.  The climb up was a good one.  Once again, I had no plans for a personal best, but I laid out a 12 minute 10 second climb.  I was pleasantly surprised!

When I went to turn on the camera for the ride down, it would not turn on.  My guess is that I had left it unplugged for too long and the battery went dead.  So much for recording this downhill.  My only hope now was that it didn’t go dead as I was capturing the earlier run.

I was taking it easy down the road – not even pedaling once I reached the all downhill section.  I glanced behind me and saw a car coming.  Typically drivers do one of two things as you come down the mountain. They either move around you quickly or they sit right behind you even when you move over as far right as possible to let them by.

Of course, it would be very hard for a driver to keep up with a bicycle on the winding road.  I decided to use that to my advantage.  So, I slipped into the big gear and put out a burst of speed.  By this time I was reaching some of the steeper portions of the road.  I tucked and let the bike roll.

We came off the mountain and I pulled over as we neared the traffic light to let the car pass me.  The car pulled up beside me and stopped.  I glanced over and a saw a woman rolling down her window.  She said to me with wonder in her voice, “That was amazing!  You were going 45 mph!”  I replied that I just didn’t want to be in her way.  In my mind, I was thinking… “You should have been behind the pros last weekend!”

Now for the knees… Well, actually it is my saddle.  Back when I broke my frame, I had stopped by the shop to pick up my saddle.  It needed some repairs.  Unfortunately, I had not marked my seat height and distance from the head set.

The result was that John was not confident about the fit when he built up the new frame.  Initially, it felt just fine.  However, as I have taken it for longer rides and put out more effort, I’ve found that it is hurting my knees a bit.

At first I thought the pain was bruising since I felt it mostly right beneath the healing road rash on my right knee.  I’m sure that is part of it.  However, my left knee also was feeling some slight pain.

I think I’m going to need to go revisit my saddle location.  Based on my own experimentation on the road, I think I need to move the saddle just a tad forward.  The height seems to be okay, but I might have to work with that as well.

Anyone out there able to tell me what might cause pain on the top outside of your knee?  It isn’t “inside” my knee.  It is right where some tendons appear to join from the thigh area to the upper outside of the knee.

Oh, I didn’t get that video.  The camera went dead shortly after starting my descent.  I’ll have to get out there again to give it a try.

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Posted in Rides, Training | 2 Comments »