achy knees after 44 mi ride

I'm pretty new to tri's but is your bike fit properly? Probably a stupid question, but you gotta start somewhere!

I'm going to ask the same thing, have you been fit to your bike?  

Hi,
yes - its a new bike and I've been fit to it. I really love the bike and have been very comfortable on it - but I've never ridden that far before. I usually ride around 20 mi. I'm training for a sprint.

There are several possible causes of achy knees. In general, standing is not a bad thing, and under ordinary circumstances will not cause knee pain.

Since this ride was a bit longer than usual this could be nothing more than your reaction to a more strenuous ride.

However:

If your cadence is too low (could be the case while either sitting or standing), you could strain your muscle/tendons/ligaments which could lead to knee pain.

If your seat is too low it can also cause your knee to become tender.

If the mechanics of your leg movement are not good, this can lead to knee pain. For instance, if your knee swings out toward the top of the pedal stroke this can irritate the cartilage which covers the posterior aspect (back) of the patella (knee cap)  causing your knee to become tender.This is known as chondromalacia patellae, often called Runner's Knee. Chondromalacia occurs because of irritation of the articular cartilage on the undersurface of the kneecap. Google this for more information. I believe its incidence is also higher in females.

Another common knee problem is Patellar Tendinitis. Google this for more information as well.

Check out the following web site for more information.

http://www.cptips.com/knee.htm

Hope this helps.

John


Edited by johnrsims 2009-09-05 11:43 AM

x-2 on this.  It could also be if you are using cleats.  If your shoes are not in line with your pedal stroke, then over time the misalignment in your knee could make it achey.

In second thought...if 20 miles is the longest you've been....and then pushing it to 44, you may just be putting enough extra stress on your knees after your muscles get tired to cause this kind of "ache" the next day.

Hills and harder gears alone don't cause knee issues, but they can exacerbate them if your fit is wrong.

Where is the soreness/pain at? Under the knee cap, on the side of the knee, behind the knee or at the top of the knee?

Top/under the cap the knee is saddle height too low and potentially a stabilization issue. Raise the saddle a half inch then move up in smaller increments until you pedal smooth but your knee is not close to locking straight. You knee should have roughly a 150 degree bend at the bottom of the stroke if you have a way to measure it. If you do major seat raising you'll need to side the saddle forward in the rails a bit too.

If it's behind the knee, lower the saddle.

Best bet is to get a proper fit, they can address cleat position, cleat wedges or shoe inserts to help with pronation or limb length differences, etc. If you pay for a full bike fitting you'll get fitted for saddle height, stack height, stem length, saddle fore/aft, etc. on top of the cleat position and shoe fitting. It's worth every penny as it will help remedy the pain and chances are you'll be faster when properly fitted.

Hi,
Even though I don't usually do long rides, I have done rides in the 30's, this was just my longest one.
I did read the webpage about knee mechanics 7 cycling and found it very interesting - especially the part about foot & cleat position.  I  think I may have some lateral movement in my stroke.  I'll pay more attention to that.

Thanks for your responses & thoughts!

I was going to suggest looking at cleat placement and "float" as well. I don't know what kind of shoe/pedal system you're using, but not having enough float can also cause knee discomfort.

I agree with one of the posts.  If your cadence is too low it will hurt your knees.  This happened to me and I increased my cadence.