swbkrun Mentor Group- CLOSED FOR BUSINESS!!! (Page 218)

Stef - your swim, bikes and runs are better than mine. I cant even swim that far in one shot. Your run is faster than I am and I couldnt do the distance without stopping or passing out. I say you did pretty awesome and you can only improve.

Question - I have a question, I am still trying to figure out the placement for the cleats. Now when I ride I am getting a little pain in the back of my right knee at the tendon/ligmanent on the outside of the leg. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do? I have also noticed on the bike that I must use my right leg for a lot of it because it hurts and gets sore way quicker than the left.

can you post a pic or two or a video?

I can see if my wife will take one tonight of me on the bike. I am still working on the form of the pedaling. What do you need exactly to help out?

doesn't need to be long.  get it from the side and tight on you and the bike.  wear your gear not loose fitting clothes.  and ahhhh....don't make a dumb move like i did and wear the same color shirt as the background.

and then ryan and tony will show up and may have some helpful advice for ya like they usually do.  ;-)

you can also save it in your profile if you wanted to so if someone wanted to see it they wouldn't have to come find the post. 

Ok cool, it will have to be pictures. I dont have a trainer at home and will just have her snap pics of me riding at different points etc.

My guess it has something to do with the alignment of your cleats.  If not centered you will put strain on your other muscles, joints, ligaments, etc.  I would maybe go to the local bike shop and ask them if they can take a quick look?  Just to see?!

nonsense.  that's to easy.

They are loose from right to left, I read something that said to do that until i was comfortable with them. Should I tighten them up to see where they really are? I tried to center them the best I could, maybe I should take another look. I will go to the LBS if I cant see anything.

ok sorry,  i thought we were talking about a comfort issue that maybe someone could help resolve by looking at pics as we've done in the past.  i didn't realize we were talking about loose cleats.  listen to steve.

Do you think that is the issue? I have never used them before and I am so worried about falling I wanted to follow what I read. My pedals and my shoes have a million screws so I guess I should do some more research. I bought hte LG Ventilator Road Shoes and have them centered. What is the ideal position for your feet and knees with cleats?

Many of the ideals have been thrown out as far as cleat position in relation to your feet and knees go. 

What I am envisioning is that your float is open (when clipped in you can move your heel right and left easily before hitting the point where it wants to unclip. 

Pay attention to how you are riding, which position your heel is in, is it pulled in so your foot is straight forward, or is it out past your toes, thus pointing your toes inward in essence. 

I am trying to picture where the pain is, but there are alot of points that you could be describing, both behind the knee and on the outside.  Also what part of the knee, above/below/on the pivot point when you bend your leg.

I think going into the shop may be worth the trip, that way you can show them where the pain is and they can look at your pedal stroke on a trainer.  One suggestion I could see helping is some  cleat shims to help level off your foot, one of the main causes of outter knee pain on the bike that I have found.

Falling is one thing.  Injury is a whole number nagging game.  Don't mess around.  Stop by the bike shop ask them to take a "QUICK LOOK" and if it is a good bike shop they will straighten you out real quick.  Let's see if I can play out the conversation for you:

LBS: Can I help you?
You: Yeah, I am hoping you can help me out real quick.  I just bought these shoes and since I have put the cleats on, I have felt this little nagging strain in the back of my left knee.  This is the 1st time ever using clipless pedals, so I just want to be sure I am not doing something wrong.  Any chance you can take a quick look? 

Down play it.  You are not in the saddle long enough right now to drop $300 on a bike fitting.  You just want to make sure that you are somewhat set up properly with your pedals, and seat height.  Seat height may also be the issue causing strain.  If your seat is too low if will add some strain on your knee's.  Throw a picture on here and you will get plenty of opinions....

that's what i was originally thinking.  i remember my fitter saying this about pain in the back of the knee. 

Ok cool, I have been struggling with seat height. Being tall and having long legs makes it a pain to get everything matched. I am hoping that in September I will have hte extra money for a proper fit. My heels are easy to move when they are clipped in, I am wondering if this is why i am not seeing a huge improvement over the toe cage. I keep thinking it is because I am tall with a lot of this but I think I am just making excuses.

On my knee -> when the knee is bent on the right side, the rear of my knee and that ligament/tendon that angles across connecting the lower leg to upper leg is where is sore. It is not constant so I think the heel position may be the right thing.

Do you think I should take my bike w/ me to the LBS and see if they will help? or just take the pedals in?

Definitely take the bike.

I just worry, the LBS where I bought it was nice upfront but completely worthless now. I should have went somewhere else but the service at this place is horrid. I need to go to performance bike anyway and that is where I bought my shoes so I will take it along.

If anyone is looking for new running shoes, I just wanted to pass this on as I saved some big money today on  an order I forgot to place yesterday.

Bing.com offers a cashback program (until the end of the month when they discontinue it) but since it started I have saved a good amount of money when making online purchases.  Basically you can do the following:

www.bing.com
search for oakley split jacket (what helped me find this store initially)
At the top of  the page a link should come up that says "Oakley Jacket at Endless" With a coin next to it saying you can earn 30% cashback on eligible purchases
Click the link which will take you to the endless.com webpage with the serach "oakley jacket"
Navigate to the shoe menu and you will see the little icon for the cashback indicating it is 40% today.
I then looked for shoes and ended up with a pair of Brooks Green Silence and Brooks Launch shoes, add to your card and go through the process of ordering. 
The checkout process uses an amazon account if you have one.
One of the last steps shows you how to claim your cashback award, (40% of your total purchase),  if you have not used it before you will need to setup a windows live or hotmail account and then it puts the cashback in pending status.

It takes 60 days for the cashback to clear, but it can then be sent to paypal, or you may be able to request a check directly from bing for a buck or two.  I know some other places have also used this for Oakley sunglasses as well since 40% makes a good dent in the cost if anyone is in the market for them.

About 90 min from Chicago, only 7 potty stops so far LOL

Forgot to add they also carry SIDI shoes, for anyone who is in that market.

Just thought I'd pop in and say today officially sucks.  Car lost a belt this morning and $500 later......now I've missed my lunch swim, my strength class after work and I still have 3 weeks of track out summer camp x 2 kids to pay for.  Plus you guys said I can't buy my IMCA gear (not that I can afford it anymore anyway)   The only highlight of the day is learning Kyla is coming to dinner!!

that's a highlight? you really are having a bad day.

lawn guys shattered our front door on saturday.  500 bucks for the glass.  cancelled the open house becasue of it.  7-10 days to fix.  not good when trying to sell the place.  beer fridge still works so life is good.  c'mon over if you want. 

i went for a walk a little while ago and ran into the biggest rooster i've ever seen.  just hangin' next to the parking garage.  odd.

edit.  standby.  i'm gonna walk out there and and see if i can't get this sucker on video.

Edited by fattyfatfat 2010-07-15 2:43 PM

Uggh, huge final tonight, feeling unprepared.

Definitely gonna try and go out for a run tonight. Hopefully not make a mistake/wrong turn and end up doing twice the distance. Same rule applies though, I will not walk any uphill. Just a mental goal for me and an attempt to get the front shin muscles in to shape. I am doing better at running but still completely suck at it for now. I have until 9/6 off from school and I am gonna pound it each week.