Bike Noob

Because I'm Always Learning Something New

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Partners

My Knee is Killing Me!

03.02.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

A while ago, I wrote about the sorry state of my cleats. Finally, over the weekend, I did something about it. I bought new ones.

That night, I sat in front of the TV, diligently swapping out the old, worn cleats for the sharp, bright new ones. I even took time to trace the outline of the old cleats with a magic marker, just like Jeff Hemmel suggested.

Sunday, I did a 33-mile club ride on rolling hills. It was my first time on this route this year, although it’s one we do often. I found that the winter has taken its toll on me — by the time I finished, I was spent.

Monday morning, I woke up and rolled out of bed — and recoiled at the sharp pain in my left knee. Holy cow, did it ever hurt! And throughout the day, it got no better. Walking up and down stairs really was a chore. Downstairs, worse than up.

The biggest problem was, I couldn’t get comfortable with the knee regardless of its position. If I stretched it out straight, it started aching after a bit. If I bent it to relieve the ache, that worked — for about two minutes. Then that position became uncomfortable.

Monday night, I went home and grabbed my left bike shoe. I think I knew exactly what caused the problem. I walk with my feet splayed out a bit. With the old cleats, I positioned the left one so the left foot pointed a bit outwards when clipped in. For some reason, the right foot is just fine pointed dead ahead. But when I installed the new ones, I guess I didn’t pay close enough attention to positioning the cleat so that the left toe would point out a little. Dumb.

This morning, I woke up to more pain in the knee. If anything, it seemed to get worse during the day. I posted my dilemma to my club’s bulletin board, and got a lot of helpful responses, but only one that really addressed my problem. A doctor suggested taking Ibuprofen at the maximum dose. If I could tolerate it, he said the pain would subside after a couple of days.

When I got home tonight, I did exactly that. The Ibuprofen does seem to help. As I write this, I have less pain in the knee than I’ve had, but I’m not out of the woods yet. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days.

The worst case scenario is, I tore the meniscus in my knee. That’s happened before, in my other knee, about 16 years ago. I had arthroscopic surgery then to deal with it. I hope to avoid another round of that now.

What’s worrying me is that I might be knocked off the bike for awhile. I’ve got the MS 150 coming up next month, and now is the time I have to start building my mileage. A number of other organized rides are on the horizon too, rides that I’d like to take part in. I’ve already decided to skip Pedal Thru the Pines, a wonderful hilly ride through some state parks near Bastrop, Texas this weekend. It would kill me to miss more.

So for now, Bike Noob is out of the saddle. I’m pretty grumpy, and I’m not making things easy on my wife. “For cryin’ out loud, you”re 59!” she told me this evening (my birthday is Thursday). “Stop pretending you’re 29.”

Can’t help it. Biking has made me feel a lot spryer than I’m probably entitled to.

I’ll keep you posted on my recovery.

Like this:

Like Loading...

Categories // Injury, soreness Tags // cleat, Injury, knee, soreness

Dealing with injury

03.26.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

Since I began biking almost two years ago, I’ve been lucky when it comes to injuries.  I haven’t had any to speak of.  Oh, I know I’ve griped about my numb toe too often.  (By the way, those new shoes of mine have indeed taken care of that problem.  On a two and a half hour ride last weekend, I had barely a twinge out of it.)  There was some soreness after my crash last fall, but nothing to keep me from riding.

That’s a nice departure from my running days, when I used to develop injuries fairly often.  If I could, I’d run through the pain.  Sometimes that was fine — sometimes, it aggravated the problem.

I bring this up, because I got a recent email from reader Don, in California.  He said:

Last week I injured my back and left hip, I believe it came from having my left foot too toed in while riding, which caused aggravation along the tendon that runs in that area. I took two days off, iced and did Tylenol. I’m fine. But that still leads to the question of how to handle biking injuries? 

We look on with amazement as Lance Armstrong has surgery for a collarbone fracture that was worse than first thought, then gets patched up with a five-inch steel plate and a dozen screws, and is expected to be on the trainer in a week, and back to racing in eight to twelve weeks.  But that’s Lance.

How about you?  What kind of injuries have you had to deal with, and what was recovery like?  What did you do to come back, and how long did it take?

Like this:

Like Loading...

Categories // Injury, soreness Tags // Injury, soreness

Bowling and biking don’t mix

12.13.2008 by Ray Niekamp // Leave a Comment

Went to a Happy Hour with my wife last night — one of the groups she belongs to had a holiday get together at local bowling alley.

I haven’t bowled in more than 15 years, and didn’t intend to last night, but things happen, and the next thing I knew, I was wriggling into some rental bowling shoes and picking a nicked and gouged ball off the rack.

When I was a little kid, I bowled a lot. My grandparents were bowling fanatics, and Grampa taught me a five-step approach to the line. Those five steps are short, mincing little steps, and as a grownup, I feel like an idiot when I roll a ball that way, so I decided three long steps would be the way to go.

I picked the spot on the lane where I intended to roll the ball, and began my approach. Left, right, left — rightleft! That five-step move I had learned so long ago wouldn’t go away! The additional two steps automatically happened. I sailed the ball down the lane as I tried to catch my left foot from crossing the foul line. BRAAP! The foul alarm blared. The newfangled electronic scoring thingy flashed FOUL! in big red letters. And I grabbed my left hamstring.

Holy cripes, did it hurt. I pulled something back there. The combination of trying to check the two added steps plus rolling a 16-pound ball and trying to look graceful while doing it (Who am I kidding? I never look graceful at anything) put my leg in an awkward position and caused the muscle pull.

It was still sore this morning when I got up.  Mrs. Noob wanted to go for a ride, so after some chores around the house, we saddled up for a jaunt to the Veloway.  Not too bad, except for a stiff wind that almost knocked us off our bikes a time or two.

At the Veloway, I took off for some quick laps.  Pat held back, fighting the wind.  I could feel the hamstring, but besides a little soreness, it seemed okay.  No doubt the exercise was warming the muscle and making it feel better.

Pat decided to do only one lap, and I caught up to her after I finished two.  We headed home with the wind mostly at our backs this time.  I stretched and showered, and wow! does that hamstring hurt.

I’m walking around the house like an old man, kind of hobbling.  I know it’ll work itself out in another day or two, but I really can do without this kind of strain.  I think I’ll avoid bowling from here on out.

Like this:

Like Loading...

Categories // Odds 'n ends Tags // soreness

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

Get Email Updates

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 257 other subscribers

Categories

  • Accessories
  • Bike fit
  • Bikes
  • Blogging
  • Books
  • clubs
  • Cold weather
  • Community
  • Commuting
  • Components
  • crash
  • cycling
  • Equipment
  • Favorite rides
  • fitness
  • food
  • guest post
  • Heat
  • Injury
  • logs
  • Maintenance
  • Mental
  • Nutrition
  • Odds 'n ends
  • People
  • Poll
  • Racing
  • Records & stats
  • Review
  • Rides
  • running
  • Safety
  • soreness
  • Specialized
  • Technique
  • Technology
  • Tips
  • tires
  • training
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Partners

Recent Posts

  • Getting Back on the Bike: Road Cycling Tips for Older Cyclists
  • Are BCAAs and EAAs Good for Cycling?
  • How to Fix Numb Toes When Cycling
  • How to Find and Vet a Bike Club
  • Celebrate Pearl Izumi with Big Savings in the Memorial Day Sale

Categories

  • Accessories
  • Bike fit
  • Bikes
  • Blogging
  • Books
  • clubs
  • Cold weather
  • Community
  • Commuting
  • Components
  • crash
  • cycling
  • Equipment
  • Favorite rides
  • fitness
  • food
  • guest post
  • Heat
  • Injury
  • logs
  • Maintenance
  • Mental
  • Nutrition
  • Odds 'n ends
  • People
  • Poll
  • Racing
  • Records & stats
  • Review
  • Rides
  • running
  • Safety
  • soreness
  • Specialized
  • Technique
  • Technology
  • Tips
  • tires
  • training
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Archives

  • May 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • March 2022
  • October 2020
  • November 2018
  • May 2018
  • September 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • January 2016
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008

Copyright © 2026 · Modern Studio Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Go to mobile version
%d