On the delights of knee pain

I suppose most cyclists have suffered from knee-related pain at some point. After last week’s – admittedly flat – excursion some common twinges seemed to have flared up once more, in the usual place, my right knee.

The first time I was incapacitated by knee pain was a couple of years ago after building up my mileage too quickly before riding to Dunwich-and-back, a 200+ mile escapade. It exposed some fit issues with my fixed bike (which I’d been riding exclusively at that point) that I’d glossed over at the time, and was perhaps a bit of folly considering the rather limited mileage I’d done previously that year. It was a miserable affair riding with constant knee pain that day, and into a headwind to boot. It took a couple of debilitating weeks off the bike to recover, and after a change of saddle height it all but subsided again.

I’m fairly certain my current problems are largely due to a shortage of riding rather than massive bikefit issues. 30 miles into a cold headwind probably didn’t help matters. So I’m optimistic that sacrificing a week on the bike here or there will be all I need to recover. Unfortunately I don’t really have the luxury of giving up on commuting with a rather heavy pannier, and the 20 miles a day I’ve been doing in traffic haven’t been all that pleasant.

It’s a bit of a downer, as with the recent mild (and dryer) weather I’ve been itching to go out for a couple of short rides, even feeling renewed enthusiasm for the local Kent lanes, which I realise I haven’t visited for a while. Ho hum. I’ve spent most of the weekend drinking tea and eating toast, carbo-loading for another week of heavy-laden commuting. Soon.

 

• "recovery"
• commuting
• crippling weakness
• dunwich dynamo
• knee pain