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Phantom Knee Pain

05.10.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

My knee was sore Tuesday, but I went for my usual Tuesday evening after-work ride anyway.  Made it worse.

Besides my saddle sore issues, I had another weird one last week. I noticed while climbing stairs during the day that my left knee hurt. Nothing big, but it was bothersome.

I didn’t think much of it, and I went out as I usually do on a Tuesday evening to take my small ring ride at the Veloway. While riding, the pain disappeared, so I figured it was just a temporary ache.

When I got home after an hour’s ride, the knee was quite sore. It ached with every step I took, and it was hard for me to get comfortable for any length of time in my easy chair that evening. I worried that I had stupidly done some serious damage to the knee.

While getting ready for bed, I applied pressure with my thumb to the edge of the kneecap. Hm, that was some noticeable soreness. I stared at the ceiling for awhile that night, rolling over in my mind all the dire medical problems I might have aggravated by riding the bike that day.

In the morning, the pain was gone. The night after, I rode again (the night when I aggravated the saddle sore – the fates were going to get me one way or the other!).

I was baffled. I had thought that somehow I had been riding out of position. Maybe the saddle slipped down a bit (No). Maybe I had loose cleats that caused my knee to be out of alignment when I pedaled (No, cleats are nice and tight). Maybe I had ridden with my knees pointed out, which I sometimes catch myself doing. But I haven’t really done that in two years, so I was confident that couldn’t be it.

Here I am a week later, and I have no knee pain. Still trying to figure out how it was able to come and go so quickly.

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Categories // soreness Tags // knee

Hot Spot Cure

05.03.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 3 Comments

You might recall that several weeks ago I complained about the hot spot I get on the bottom of my left foot after riding for about 30 miles. It really makes longer rides unpleasant, and since I like to do longer rides, it’s a real bummer.

I dug up an old article that said the hot spot is actually caused by a neuroma — a swelling of the nerve between toes. There was even a way to deal with it — things called matatarsal buttons.

Maybe I’m a lousy shopper, but I never found any. (Not that I tried all that hard.) It occurred to me, however, that I could come up with a treatment of my own. So I did.

Ta da! A cotton ball torn in half. I stick half between my two outside toes. It seemed like a stopgap treatment at the time. But it works!

Now, any time I plan to be on the bike for more than an hour, I make sure to rip apart a cotton ball, and stick half between my toes.

I admit, I haven’t really put it to the test on a long ride yet. I have done 36 miles however, and I never had a complaint from the foot. Anecdotally, it works for me.

As usual, it turns out to be a simple solution. I’m irked that when I was last bothered by foot problems — a numb little toe — I spun my wheels trying all sorts of remedies. I even slashed my old biking shoes. Nothing worked.

It’s counterintuitive to think that spreading out your foot will ease a problem that seems to be caused by too-tight shoes. But that’s what it did.

Let me know if you have had foot or toe problems, and have come up with your own solution.

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Categories // soreness Tags // hot foot, numb, toes

Do You Need Chamois Cream?

09.26.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

After cycling seriously for three years now, I like to think that my bottom has HTFU’d with the best of ’em.  But that isn’t always the case.

Earlier this month, I got rides in on Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday — a rare occurrence for me.  And as I was getting dressed for the rides, I noticed that our trusty tin of Bag Balm was empty.  What the heck — I’ve HTFU’d — I’ll just ride without lubing my bottom.

The results were great.  Never had any rubbing while on the bike.  In fact, I never thought about my posterior contact point.  I figured I’d now be able to ride all the time without any kind of chamois cream, or bottom lube, or whatever you prefer to call it.

Three days later, things changed.

I woke up with a saddle sore.  Yes, one of those pimple-like things in the crotchal zone.  Irritating beyond belief.  Jeff Hemmel discussed them about a year ago.

I’ve had these things before, and they’re no fun.  But this time, I was lucky.  I put on some bike clothes and went for a ride, and it didn’t bother me at all.  So, it wasn’t the result of rubbing against the saddle itself.  When I got home, however, I sure knew it was there.

So for several days, I had this weird situation.  I could ride and not be bothered, but in street clothes — zing!

It went away in a few more days, and — knock wood — hasn’t been back.

And I still haven’t replaced the empty tin of Bag Balm.

How about you?  Are you tough enough to ride without lube?

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Categories // soreness Tags // chamois cream

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