I’m having a weird issue where I’m getting kind of intense knee pain, but only on rides over 60 miles.
I’ve had a retul fit, my bike fit feels great, and I’ve been faster this year than ever before. I have plenty of energy, and I can do any intensity… but after around 60mi my knees just start to feel thick and inflamed, to the point where I have to take breaks. I just did a century where I basically limped through the last third because of knee pain (despite taking alleve).
I’m thinking the culprit could be that I have NOT been good about rolling my IT bands or stretching my hip flexors this year. It’s strange that everything feels fine until that 60mi mark.
Wondering if anyone else has dealt with something like this, and what the solution was.
There are some problems that only manifest after a certain distance or duration. For me it was hotfoot after about 60 miles.
It may be that stretching would help—I don’t know. But not all fitters are created equal. I saw a fitter once, he used the Retul system, and he was OK but not great.
I later saw another fitter who had a Retul system but didn’t use it on me, relying instead on his eyeballs, and he did a better job. I had been using Speedplay pedals and had stumbled my way into a setup that had worked but relied on an extreme toes-out stance that you can only really get with Speedplays (a local minimum, if you will). I wanted to get away from Speedplays but didn’t see a way to. That second fitter was able to get me there.
For that matter, if you go back to the original fitter and explain the problems you’re having, he might be able to fix them.
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Did your knee pain develop after your bike fit?
It actually really predates the fit. It happened before on a century ride, but since then for years I hadn’t don’t many rides over the 60mi mark. This year I pushed things longer and started experiencing the issue again.
I was having a problem with bursitis on the inside of my left knee and found that lowering my seat by 5mm solved the problem. I haven’t had a bike fit, which … yeah I really should. My situation may not be relevant to yours but it just goes to show that even small adjustments can make a big difference.
I’m 66 and been a cyclist for over 50 years. My suggestions based on experience would be 1. Check your shoe plates are fitted correctly. 2. Make sure your pedal system allows for a wide degree of float 3. If you’re riding for longer and further then maybe dial it back a little then build back up slowly. 4. See a physio who understands cycling who may be able to give you specific exercises 5. Consider riding lower gears. These are all things I have found helpful at various times…and I’ve tried to put them in order. I guess my 6. Would be don’t ride further than 60 miles if none of the above make a difference My 7. Would be do 30 minutes of yoga every morning..a bit more of an holistic approach but I’m sure it’s why I’m still racing MTB and CX and gravel and can knock out a century and 8. Try all the above and monitor your knee. Hope at least some of that is helpful.
It could perhaps be a muscle balance issue. In my csse, after having this tested, I did gym work to isolate and build up the inmost quad muscle; this helped a lot. Fatigue, leg length differences, etc, also need to be ruled out.
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I agree with @Stephen_Poole cycling is a very limited range of motion, in a pretty fixed position etc so we tend to develop imbalances that catch up with us. Even without gym work, home work doing different stretches and exercises with bands and body weight can make a big difference. Try this for example https://youtu.be/JLy_xN22Zcs?si=CjW9H1TtfOhQu9s5