Knee Pain

[Mohammad L]

[quote="olderigetbetteriwas"]also, if you wanna push 97 rpm, why train at 70-75? that don't make sense to me.

[Mohammad L]

[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/9442119/Bradley-Wiggins-hopes-cycling-in-a-higher-gear-will-help-him-to-emulate-hero-in-Olympic-time-trial.html[/url]

[olderigetbetteriwas]

hmmmm, interesting...maybe there is something in it...but wiggins has a lot of biomechanical analysis at his fingertips...everything aligned, measured, customised etc...i'd change your cleats, keep everything else the same...if pain goes away then no need to modify anything else...if pain still there then change the other things one-by-one until it goes. you mention your medial quad is giving you pain..suggests that force production could have something to do with it?....again hints at big gear?

[Toks]

Mo, its quite clear that you've simply been over doing things. There were obviously signs you should have taken things easier but you ignored them. I've made this mistake before and so have many others. I thinks its because we can always 'cycle'(turn the pedals) now matter how bad the injury is. You can't do that with a sport like 'running' coz its simply too painful so you just have to rest. Just think about it, not one, but both of your knees have been hurting on and off the bike for the last few weeks. Go and get a 'professional bike fit' (or get it checked out) and take it real easy for a while.

[Toks]

Mo, its quite clear that you've simply been over doing things. There were obviously signs you should have taken things easier but you ignored them. I've made this mistake before and so have many others. I thinks its because we can always 'cycle'(turn the pedals) now matter how bad the injury is. You can't do that with a sport like 'running' coz its simply too painful so you just have to rest. Just think about it, not one, but both of your knees have been hurting on and off the bike for the last few weeks. Go and get a 'professional bike fit' (or get it checked out) and take it real easy for a while.[quote="Mohammed L"]Wiggins in his book 'A Year in Yellow' claims that that be brought his avg cadence of 100+rpm down to 95rpm by doing strength training sessions where he was pedalling at 60rpm on a v.big gear....and somehow that led to an improvement (despite the power output being same as before?)
...

[DavidKennett]

Might be of help

[url=http://www.elitecycling.co.uk/about-elite-cycling.html]Elite Cycling[/url]
[url=http://www.trainsharpcyclecoaching.co.uk/cycle-coaching/bike-fit.html]Train Sharp[/url]
[url=http://www.cadencesport.co.uk/]Cadence Sport[/url] with an overview of a bike fitting video

Might seem expensive, but compared against cost of a modern bike, probably best investment you'll make.
I know the last two have fitted/coached local guys to pro continental level with some good results this year so far.

[Andrew G]

Give Paul at Elite a call, very good, very knowledgeable, for a bike fit if you have a really random approach to set up. This seems to have been the case.

As a simple rough rule of thumb marker for your saddle height on your road bike:
If you unclip one foot and put your heel on the pedal then as you pass the 6 o'clock position when pedalling backwards you should just about be able to flick the pedal over the BDC without rotating your hips or stretching. This will normally mean that when you clip in if you drop your heel and back pedal then your leg (with the heel dropped) will be straight when at about 5 o'clock.

This gives the vast majority of people a very close to spot on saddle height, give or take a few mm movement up or down, usually up if anything. Equally for reach for most people when riding on the hood the angle at your armpit is 90degrees or close to. Don't forget that if your move your saddle back then it effectively raises it so you'd need to drop the seatpost a couple of mm and vice versa - move it forward and raise the post a couple of mm.

Ideally your stem length should be 110mm (with a 10mm differance tolerance) as that's what bike geometry is designed around, and when riding on the hoods the bars will obscure the front hub.

The above will in most cases give a good fit, a few mm here and there may be needed to fit your physique.

Marco: The high cadence thing is a myth. Cadences are a personal thing. Higher cadences make the heart work faster and are a more aerobic workout. If you have a bigger heart then it will pump more blood (and oxygen) around the body for each beat and tends to operate on a slower bpm and can therefore be better supported by lower cadences. Lower cadences are more aerobically efficient but require larger and stronger muscles / muscle groups. As everyone's heart and physique is different the way it works best and towards which cadence it is best suited is different for everyone. This is why it's such crap that when Armstrong span low gears and everyone copied a load of people didn't get any results from it. Lower cadences are often easier on the legs simply because the muscle force required is lower, but if you don't have the aerobic fitness or your natural make-up is not geared that way then you won't be able to maintain the required cadence to cover the ground in the same time.

[spike]

[quote="Andrew G"] Don't forget that if your move your saddle back then it effectively raises it so you'd need to drop the seatpost a couple of mm and vice versa - move it forward and raise the post a couple of mm.

[quote="spike"][quote="Andrew G"] Don't forget that if your move your saddle back then it effectively raises it so you'd need to drop the seatpost a couple of mm and vice versa - move it forward and raise the post a couple of mm.

[spike]

Huh! So then I've learnt something today.

[Mohammad L]

[quote="Andrew G"] Lower cadences are more aerobically efficient but require larger and stronger muscles / muscle groups.

[quote="Mohammad L"][quote="Andrew G"] Lower cadences are more aerobically efficient but require larger and stronger muscles / muscle groups.

[Marek]

1. Get a bike fit - I had a problem with knee pain about a year or so into starting to ride. I went to the Etape and didn't really take note of saddle height etc, so had been training at a certain height and then changed it a bit by mistake when transporting bike to the Etape. I then got awful knee pain, saddle was too low without a doubt now I know a bit more about it. I had a bike fit and it was sorted almost overnight, I now know my vital measurement by heart and when I go anywhere with a bike or hire one I always have a tape measure with me to ensure I am as accurate as possible.

2. If you are interchanging between different bikes, you need to get them as close as possible to each other. If you do a lot of training on one bike, and then change to another one that is not the same it will feel strange and likely you will push very hard, get tired very quickly and then injure yourself as using different muscles. If you interchange your bikes frequently this may be less of an issue and you can get yourself comfy with slightly different positions, but this is not ideal.

3. From what I have been reading about your riding it sounds as like you have moved from a recreational cyclist to one that is knocking very long rides in about a year. I think it is possible that you are overdoing it. Becoming an endurance athlete with the stamina to ride long rides day in day out takes time. It defo takes longer than a year for most people.

4. Feeling guilty about not riding is pretty common in people getting into cycling and triathlon. The best thing to do is to chill out a bit, you make a lot of benefits out of resting, this is when your muscles recover and grow and become stronger. I have seen a few guys over do it in their early years of riding to then get themselves into a position where they then loathe the bike and training and give up. It is a real shame to see that happen so try to be sensible. If you are hurting or feeling unwell your body is telling you something. No need to feel guilty this happens to everybody. The guys who recover quicker and are back on their bikes stronger are the ones that take the time off to ensure they are recovered and well. You just need to accept that your body will go wrong now and then. If you give it time to recover you will be back quick enough and it does not take that long to get back up to speed if you need to take a couple of weeks off or even a month.

Hope that is helpful

Cheers

Marek....