In a very short period of playing at racing bikes, I've been lucky enough to meet lots of rad people—rad people whom I fear have become collateral damage in a clunky coping strategy I call "There Is No Such Thing As Cyclocross", or, "la-la-la-I-CAN'T-HEAR-YOU". This sucks. I miss you.
The problem's erratic, but the general story is that my knee will just about hold up to weekend-warrior MTB and no more, no longer, no harder. The riding I can do places unreasonable demands on the patience of my remaining trail buddies and tends to look a lot like this:
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| En route to Mr. Toad's last weekend. Driven up most of the way, still wrecked. Wa-waaa. |
In that I can get on a bike at all, I'm of course very lucky. I have my health, if not my fitness. I have amazing friends who wait at the intersections, run shuttles for me, and put up with my whining. I have big blue California skies and I have lichen on granite; I have sun splayed through tendrils of quiet oaks and manzanita; I have dry leaves skittering cartwheels behind me. That's a lot.
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| Nice and warm in Auburn. LIME-CUCUMBER GATORADE, people. All it needs is gin. |
But while I feel guilty for getting frustrated, eight months in I am frustrated nonetheless. For 24, I spend an awfully large portion of my waking hours preoccupied with an achy hip. So here are my current questions for my elders and betters who have succeeded in staying functional past the quarter-century mark:
1. Who do you recommend for (another) bike fit? I got a fit back in April, but at that point was still operating on the assumption that the problem was due to overuse. I'm now looking for a more corrective fit to address, among other things, the difference in length between my left and right legs. I'm willing at this point to get a little spendy.
2. Is there merit to the cold-turkey cure? The one thing I haven't tried is not riding at all-at all, a pretty belated Hail Mary now tentatively scheduled for December—or whenever the rain gets going. But I'm skeptical that there can really be a difference in the restorative value of total versus near-total pedaling abstention.
3. How can I resurrect some fitness without riding? Apart from a slew of PT exercises, I'm swimming (ha!) and climbing a little—but I don't know how to make either the equivalent of a hard ride. Running breaks me, bad. Your favorite alternate routes into the pain cave?
All thoughts appreciated. You can comment all over the Internet or drop me a line: ealiasalim(at)gmail.com.
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1. Roosevelt (I know, I know) once reworked a vaguely lewd portion of Psalm 19:5 to says of his country that it is "glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race." That's the feeling I miss. That and cowbell.
2. L: 94 (H-K 56; K-A 38); R: 96 (H-K 59; K-A 37)
1. Roosevelt (I know, I know) once reworked a vaguely lewd portion of Psalm 19:5 to says of his country that it is "glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race." That's the feeling I miss. That and cowbell.
2. L: 94 (H-K 56; K-A 38); R: 96 (H-K 59; K-A 37)
5 comments:
OMG this is so familiar!! The collateral damage "LALALA I Can't Hear you" coping strategy. The weeks and weeks of pain and training xtra-lite. The KNEE PAIN!!!!
I am just re-gaining my fitness after about 8-9 weeks of knee-pain-induced very minimal training. It's SUCH a relief.
My advice:
Ice. See the doctor. Ice. Patience. Ice. Ice. Ice. Patience.
:Rogue Piglet
Really sorry to hear about the knee. I've struggled with knee trouble for about as long as I've been a serious cyclist, but my knees are currently strong and pain-free. Here's some random advice.
1) Rest. Injuries like a grade 1 ankle sprain I would not rest at all, but it sounds like this merits some time off the bike.
2) Bike fit. Whoever you go with, ask them questions and figure out what they're doing so you can re-fit yourself when you have to do something like change a saddle. You also might have to do things like purchase new bike shoes to get proper cleat position or whatnot.
3) Agressive, proactive strengthening and stretching exercises. Sounds like you're doing this, but this might be the most important thing. For example, I discovered that calf exercises really improve the stability of my right knee, and stretching would provide immediate relief if it started to hurt.
4) Technique. Work on developing a fast, smooth cadence. Analyze your pedal stroke and see if there are thing to improve.
5) Progression. Start easy and build incrementally, always backing off if things start to hurt. At the beginning this means no hills and no low-cadence pedaling.
I know none of this actually answers your three questions, so: no bike fitter recommendation, taking a few weeks off now might be a really good idea, and whatever doesn't aggravate your knee-- hiking up hill with a heavy pack? No running!
Re: bike fit. I got me some extensive physical therapy for knee issues due to a leg length discrepancy/my legs being built "knock-kneed". The hardest part of this therapy was not doing the boring exercises/stretches day in and day out "forever", nor even forking out hundreds of dollars that my shitty insurance didn't cover. The hardest part was them telling me that I should not ride my bike anymore, period. Unless. UNLESS. I could have a lift added to my bike pedal. That would solve the problem of the different leg lengths, but not the problem of my knees being lined up wrong. So it would make it so that I could ride, just maybe not as long/far/hard as I could before I got "old".
I took my bike into a shop for a fit to see if they could recommend anything, but all they could do was repeatedly try to cajole/flirt their way into me committing to "trying out cyclocross" with them. Hah!
Re: cold turkey. I stopped riding for 18 months. I mean completely stopped. Never rode anywhere, not even up the road five minutes for coffee. Didn't fix it. Then I went to physical therapy and got the above sad news.
Since you seem to be more tenacious than me, I recommend trying to find a lift for your pedal for your shorter leg. I don't know if it exists, but if you're willing to spend, I'm sure you can find something comparable or at least get one of your savvy engineering friends to MacGyver something for you.
Re: fitness without riding. Hike. Hike, hike, hike. With good shoes, no shoes, or crappy shoes with good inserts (I like my SuperFeet greens). Or. Develop a fitness routine you can do at home. This is my ultra cheap route. It requires the following: a considerable amount of gumption, an excellent and ever changing playlist, and the ability to do crunches, push ups, squats, etc. Don't forget to stretch.
Re: feeling bad about the whole thing? Natural. It's ok to feel bad about it. Every once in a while I still get mega bitter over the whole "my stupid messed up body is robbing me of my hobby/therapy/outlet/recreation/cardioexercise" situation. I recommend a trip to a national park with friends, booze, and some good food to fix this.
Good luck!
Also. Happy Halloween.
Stand-up desk, firm mattress, memory-foam topper. I never felt worse than when I had a sit-down job.
<3 !
Thank you guys. I really appreciate any evidence that there are work-arounds for this kind of thing.
My general plan (after bugging everyone I know for an opinion) is: December off, the mother of all bike fits at the beginning of January, and then a month of really incremental buildup on the trainer/rollers. And lots of swimming and PT and angst in the meantime — patience is not my strong suit. ><
Fingers crossed!
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