Knee pain after certain rides

lettingthedaysgoby

I'm a relative beginner to cycling, am now at the point where I'm doing a couple of 50 mile rides a week, with odd 20-30 mile rides where I concentrate more on hill reps/interval type stuff. All has been going well and I'm enjoying myself.

However, in the last couple of weeks I've come off a couple of the longer rides with quite severe pain in my right knee. It hasn't been every time though so I can't pinpoint what could be causing it. I haven't changed anything about my position on the bike as up until now it's been working well, nice and comfy etc. I use road shoes and SPD-SL pedals, again I haven't changed anything here and I've checked that the cleats haven't moved from where they've always been.

So, if anyone has any ideas for me to look at I'd love to hear them...

onionmk

Knee pain usually comes from the saddle being to far forward or too low. Definitely was the case for me. I have long legs in comparison to my height 5 ft8/ 33 inch inseem. My saddle needed to be setback 8cm from the bottom bracket for me to be comfortable and my knee is still in front of the pedal axle.

Alternatively, If your cleats are positioned too far forward that may also contribute to knee pain. Although, I have no experience solving issues with cleat position and pains of any sort.

keef66

There are many different types of knee pain and even more different causes. Diagnosing via the internet is always going to be less than satisfactory, and you've given us next to no information to go on.

The usual generic advice is along the lines of:

Make sure your bike is properly set up for you. If you can't do it yourself using the many online guides, consider paying for a bike fit. Saddle too high or too low can cause knee problems, as can cleat position, float, the state of your feet, leg length discrepancies, lumbar / pelvic issues etc.

Warm up properly by taking it easy for the first 10 minutes of a ride.

Don't try to push too high a gear

Don't increase the duration or intensity of your rides too quickly, build up gradually.

Warm down at the end of a ride and consider stretching afterwards.

Include enough rest days.

If your bike fit is OK but the pain doesn't resolve with rest & ibuprofen or it keeps recurring, you really need to see a medical practitioner specialising in sports injuries.

lettingthedaysgoby

keef66 wrote:

There are many different types of knee pain and even more different causes. Diagnosing via the internet is always going to be less than satisfactory, and you've given us next to no information to go on.

The usual generic advice is along the lines of:

Make sure your bike is properly set up for you. If you can't do it yourself using the many online guides, consider paying for a bike fit. Saddle too high or too low can cause knee problems, as can cleat position, float, the state of your feet, leg length discrepancies, lumbar / pelvic issues etc.

Warm up properly by taking it easy for the first 10 minutes of a ride.

Don't try to push too high a gear

Don't increase the duration or intensity of your rides too quickly, build up gradually.

Warm down at the end of a ride and consider stretching afterwards.

Include enough rest days.

If your bike fit is OK but the pain doesn't resolve with rest & ibuprofen or it keeps recurring, you really need to see a medical practitioner specialising in sports injuries.

I get that internet diagnosis can be sketchy at best, but...

As far as I know the bike fit is OK. I've been comfortable on it so far and have done over a thousand miles, but I am considering getting a fitting done if I don't get anywhere.

I have a series of stretches I do after long rides, and try not to go off too hard at the beginning.

What's puzzled me is that it's just suddenly started and isn't after every ride, and just wondered if anyone else had experienced anything similar or had any ideas...

keef66

It would help us speculate wildly if you tell us a bit more about the pain. Where in the knee? When does it hurt? At rest? When standing / walking / sitting? What kind of pain? Any swelling? Does anything ease the pain? How long does it last?

I've always had dodgy knees, not helped by playing football and stomping down mountains carrying too heavy a rucsack. I've had 3 lots of meniscal cartilage surgery, but the last lot of X-rays and MRI scan suggested there's precious little else to remove and I need to manage it by being careful and rest / NSAIDs

imafatman

Something I have found out from my physio visit, our joints, tendons and ligaments are the slowest to adapt to new physical requirements. It's apparently quite common for people to get over-use injuries in these areas when starting out because our muscles and cardiovascular system can react much quicker, leading us to put more strain on those areas which can't keep up as quickly.

Bike fit and physio to diagnose properly.

S_J_P

Sounds similar to me, got a road bike, stepped up mileage, got pain in right knee. Mine was down to illotoibal band inflammation (pain on knobbly protrusion on outside of knee) but the cause? Cleat position? Saddle position? Overuse? Who knows!

Ibuprofen, foam-rolling, reduced mileage, and tweaking my heels in a tad seems to be helping!

lettingthedaysgoby

keef66 wrote:

It would help us speculate wildly...

It almost feels like I've had an accident and fell directly on it. Like it should be badly bruised on the surface but isn't, plus a painful/tight feeling at the back. No obvious swelling, Most noticeable when changing position - standing up etc Lasts 2 or 3 days.

Speculate away

keef66

Pain at the back of the knee is often attributed to having the saddle too high and over-extending the knee at the bottom of the pedal stroke. But what you describe could be just an over-use injury inflaming ligaments, tendons , muscles etc, and your knee telling you to build up more slowly.

Or you could have a bit of meniscal cartilage floating about in there.

As I say, wild speculation.

You need to go see my friend Mr Chitnavis

lettingthedaysgoby

I have a friend who's one of the physios for the England athletics team. I'll give her a call...

Will try a slight saddle drop too, see if that makes a difference.

keef66

Don't go randomly buggering about with your bike based on my guesswork! If however on reflection you think your saddle may be a bit on the high side, try dropping it a few mm at a time.

Other clues that the saddle is too high include having to point your toes down at the bottom of the stroke, and your pelvis rocking from side to side. The second one is hard to self-diagnose, but easy for a following rider to spot

lettingthedaysgoby

Yeah, I won't go mad with any changes, but a small change sounds like it's worth a try.

thebikerdude93

lettingthedaysgoby wrote:

I have a friend who's one of the physios for the England athletics team. I'll give her a call...

Will try a slight saddle drop too, see if that makes a difference.

Would be interested to know what she said?

For my knee pain I wore one of these knee supports and that seemed to fix it for me.

http://edunonline.com/product/open-patella-adjustable-knee-support/

lettingthedaysgoby

thebikerdude93 wrote:

Would be intrested to know what she said?

It came down to seemingly having a slightly wonky right knee

A small saddle drop of just 5mm, but more importantly an adjustment to the cleat on my right shoe and things are much better.

trekvet

Can't see any mention of post ride, or any other time, quad and hip stretches. And just because cleat hasn't moved, then as body could have altered, perhaps its time cleat moved to suit, or best get Speedplay X5 knee friendly pedals.

stevewj

TrekVet wrote:

Can't see any mention of post ride, or any other time, quad and hip stretches. And just because cleat hasn't moved, then as body could have altered, perhaps its time cleat moved to suit, or best get Speedplay X5 knee friendly pedals.

Hits the nail on the head - Speedplay (in my case Zero's) sorted out my knees due to free (not spring-tensioned) float. Had tried SPDs, Look and Crank Bros previously.