MosieGrimm

After completing another bike ride to Victoria with the kids in tow in their bike trailer and my bike packed down with camping gear I’ve blown out my knee. I think it is just a case of overusing and not spinning fast enough (putting too much load on my knees). I was able to make the ride to Sooke, 84km, without too much difficulty. It was on my return back to Vancouver that my knee starting to ache on the downstroke with my left leg. It gradually got worse but was manageable. The pain was right under and slightly below my knee cap and at times would shoot up the lateral side of the knee cap. If I stopped for more than one minute then it was unbearable to start again, at points I wasn’t able to put enough pressure on the pedal to clip back in. I felt like I rode most of the way home using only my right leg.

The next day my knee is still sore to pedal or walk up stairs. But sitting still, walking, running it feels perfectly fine.

We’ll see how it goes. So far I found the following good article:

Knee Pain and Bicyling – The Physician and Sportsmedicine

My plan is to:

• ice, rest for a few days and take a bit of ibuprofen
• start up again in a couple of days with some short light high rpm rides
• a week from now start working out my legs at the gym: presses, extensions and curls
• review how my bike is setup, the article above has some good suggestions

I’ll let you know in a few days how it goes.

If you haven’t already seen it here, don’t forget to check out my page on how to get from Vancouver to Victoria on BC Ferries:

Bicycle Vancouver to Tsawwassen Ferry

Update: 27-Jul-2008
I ran around a children’s playground on Sunday with my son and daughter playing tag. As I jumped up the stairs and wailed my right knee against a steel bar. The good news is that my left knee is feeling much better these days. The bad news is that I am still hobbling around with a swollen right knee.

For my left knee, it took about two days of rest, some ibuprofens, ice and some stretching for it to start feeling better. It’s still not 100% but I can at least walk up stairs and ride my bike with little discomfort. I’m still taking it easy and not pushing too hard. I’ll start some exercising my legs at the gym tomorrow.