• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Fitness Fatale

Conquering Fitness Goals One at a Time

  • About
    • Press
  • Blog
    • Archives
  • Workout Programs
    • 21 Day Fix Resources
    • P90X Resources
    • 80 Day Obsession Purchasing Options
  • PRs & Race Reports
  • Pregnancy
    • Twin Pregnancy
  • Recipes
  • Want To Work From Home As A Fitness Coach Too?
    • Fitness Coaching
  • Join My Next Challenge

October 18, 2011 By fitnessfatale 4 Comments

Too Much Too Soon?

At the end of my 53 mile bike ride the weekend before last, I noticed that the front inside of left knee was starting to be bothered a bit. I ignored it and didn’t do much about it. This past week I did my Insanity workouts and ran and wasn’t bothered by it. Unfortunately, about 10-15 miles into our 50 mile bike ride this past Saturday, my knee started acting up again. Mike was concerned but I assured him the pain was a 2 on a scale from 1-10. I kept on trucking along and was noticing that Asia and I were riding our usual route even more quickly than usual. We added on a loop within the course this time rather than adding on a coastal loop at the end like we did the first time and the loop was nice and flat. I averaged about 19 miles/hour on this flat loop and was feeling pretty good about my improvements.

About 3/4 of the way into the ride, the pain in my knee had escalated to about a 3-4 out of 10. Still not too much to be concerned about. However, while riding up hills at the end of my ride, the pain got up to a 7 or 8. Not good. I used my right leg to pedal for the last few hills and whenever we stopped and started again, the pressure I put on my left leg made me wince with pain.

Common Causes of Knee Pain in Cyclists

As someone who has always said *knock on wood* “I’ve never been injured” this is a concern to me. Of course as soon as the ride was over, I researched the heck out of my problem and discovered that knee pain is fairly common, especially in new riders, and is usually a result of the following:

  1. Increasing mileage too quickly *guilty* (riding to 50 miles on a Saturday is fine if you are doing ANY midweek riding. Unfortunately my foe Fall has taken away my morning sunlight and until we get the trainers set up there aren’t any chances for mid-week rides)
  2. Riding in a low gear up hills *guilty* (the course we ride has several hills that require me to ride in my easiest gear and I am still grinding the pedals slowly to make my way up them)
  3. Cleat Alignment/Bike Fit *semi-guilty* (I had my bike fitted to me but as I’ve previously mentioned, it’s a borrowed bike and it doesn’t fit me perfectly, although I was assured it was good enough)

Treatment Options

This is where I get stuck and need help. I think the main reason for my pain (which I hesitate to call an injury quite yet) is that I’m not riding during the week and doing long rides on the weekend (I just had my bike fitted so I’m ruling that out). The solution I like best to this problem is to ride during the week more often. Luckily, my trainer was just delivered yesterday so I can start doing mid-week rides in my living room. However, I also know I should probably rest my knee. I’m not one to rest, and instead I went for a 9 mile run on Sunday afternoon as part of my marathon training. My knee was feeling much better that morning and by afternoon I couldn’t feel it at all. After my run it was little irritated but nothing like the ride. On Monday I did Insanity Plyometric Circuit and went for a 5 mile run and my knee was surprisingly not too sore. A little irritation but nothing substantial.

I iced my knee on Sunday night after the run since I read that I should follow R*I*C*E – Rest Ice Compression and Elevation. At least I got one part of it down. At this point, I’m kind of waiting it out. I’d like to set up my trainer later this week and see how it feels when I get on and ride in an easy gear. I plan to do my long ride this weekend on a nice flat route rather than our über hilly Pizza Port favorite. If things don’t take a turn for the better, then I’ll sadly follow the (online) doctor’s orders and take some time off cycling, running and high impact activities like Insanity, the program that I am currently 2 weeks into.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
Pin
Share
Tweet
0 Shares

Related

Filed Under: Triathlons, Uncategorized Tagged With: common causes of knee pain, knee pain on bike, knee pain while cycling

« Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Insanity Fit Test & Day 16 Results »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robyn says

    October 18, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    Please don’t get hurt! It’s seriously not worth it! A little bit of taking it easy now is worth it in the long run… If I would have listened to that I wouldn’t have had to sit out 3 months of doing NOTHING!

    Reply
  2. Miranda says

    October 18, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    REST!! Take it easy for a week or two. It would be devastating to injure yourself more, especially closer to race day. Take the time your body needs to heal now before it gets worse. Keep icing and take some advil/aleve. (any NSAID will work!) 🙂

    Reply
  3. Pamela | Girl Gone West says

    October 18, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    Getting injured and having to take a break is THE WORST. It makes me want to die inside. However, the body can only heal itself when it has the time to do so. You may hate taking a week long break, but it’s better than having to cancel your marathon or worse, your Ironman. Just my two cents!

    Reply
  4. katie says

    October 18, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    Ooooh, what a stinker! I had some similar pain this way – squats, especially the one-leg version, helped a LOT! I hope it heals up soon!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to My Blog!

Nicole Dobransky

I’m Nicole. I’m a runner, mom to three girls (including twins!), and fitness lover who attempts to live a life of balance as a pizza, craft beer and coffee lover. I live and train near the ocean in San Diego and always keep it real here – there are lots of failures along with my successes in these pages, but what you’ll never see me do is give up!

I am a former accountant who started this blog from a place of absolute passion and love for health and fitness. I’ve now turned it into a way for me to reach and help more people as a health & fitness coach & it’s my mission to help as many women as possible achieve their own goals. I’ve brought hundreds of women into my community and helped them gain confidence and happiness through either my monthly accountability groups or by following their dreams as an online coach as well!

If you’d like to reach out to me for any reason, contact me at fitnessfataleblog at gmail dot com!

I’d Love To Help You Achieve Your Goals!

I am a health and fitness coach. I run monthly challenge groups which provide daily accountability and guidance through your journey to achieve your own personal goals.

If you're a runner who is looking to mix in strength training, don't hesitate to reach out! You can compliment your running by including a modified version of any of the programs with your running schedule.

Upcoming Groups:

February 11th: 4 Week Virtual Accountability Group - Transform:20, 21 Day Fix, 80 Day Obsession, LIIFT4 or any other program.

Ongoing: Pregnancy and Postpartum Support Group

Join The Next Challenge

Curious about becoming a virtual fitness coach yourself? Join our next private Facebook event and learn all about it with no obligation.

January 24th

Join The Next Coach Info Session

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 421 other subscribers

Archives

  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011

Copyright © 2019 · Fitness Fatale