Knee pain after mountain bike adventure

I headed out on Monday with a friend for what I would call my first serious mountain bike ride (before that it has just been easy dirt roads). Not hard by guru mountain biking standards but hard enough for this beginner.

The ride included lots of hills and some that were fairly steep and rocky. I noticed the next day that my knees (below the knee cap towards the inside of the leg) seemed a little achey and still are a bit.

My bike fits well I think and I have had no pain in my knees riding it before on easier stuff.

The hills with the rocky bits freaked me a little and on one section my front wheel came off the ground (not leaning forward enough I guess) and I may have been working my legs harder than I normally do on my road bike but I was using a small gear. Another thought I had was that my body is not use to the physical side of mountain bike riding and that it may just need a little time to get use to the difference between MTB and the road.

What are your thoughts ladies?

I had such a great time and cant wait to go again but I dont want to stuff up my knees for road riding.

I'd write it off to body english and not worry about it. The only things I can think of in mountain biking that would hurt your knees are gear mashing or smacking your knee on something.

~I.

What Irulan said.

Sometimes you just have to power over an obstacle. No easy spinning with a high cadence over everything. Being a veteran of sore knees (chondromalacia), this year's TE Girls' Hill Climbing Program put me in the best shape ever for mtbiking.

Seems like I built a lot of strength by climbing hills on the road that translated into happier knees on the trail. Spinning only early in the season. You could lift weight to get some strength benefits also but I'm not the one to ask. I hate weight lifting.

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Originally Posted by SadieKate

What Irulan said.

Sometimes you just have to power over an obstacle. No easy spinning with a high cadence over everything. Being a veteran of sore knees (chondromalacia), this year's TE Girls' Hill Climbing Program put me in the best shape ever for mtbiking.

Seems like I built a lot of strength by climbing hills on the road that translated into happier knees on the trail. Spinning only early in the season. You could lift weight to get some strength benefits also but I'm not the one to ask. I hate weight lifting.

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Thanks Irulan and SadieKate - I will keep doing the pedal circle exercise recommended by Ned on his DVD and hope this will improve my pedal technique (just in case Im mashing without knowing it). I also have Chondromalacia in one knee but have had no problems when road riding and my routes do include a fair amount of hills.
Knee ache aside I had a wonderful time out riding on my mountain bike.It was also the first time I have had someone to ride with which made a nice change to the solo thing.
Im looking forward to more rides with my friend and learning more about MTB as I go.:)

Hm, this is kind of a late response, but it reminded me of a problem I had a few years back so I thought I'd chime in. I was getting sore knees in a similar area to what you describe, and I eventually went to a physio. She said that a combination of a desk job and biking a lot were aggravating my tendency to be a bit sway-backed, and due to the way nerves and things are connected, the pressure on my lower vertebrae was causing my knees to hurt. So it wasn't actually a problem with my knees at all, but with my lower back.

She recommended lots of stretching of hip flexors and strengthening my lateral abdominal muscles, along with some other things like paying attention to my posture when seated and walking and doing exercises to loosen up my lower back. I took a pilates class as well. Seemed to work, my problems went away after I followed her advice.

amg - thanks for the tip. :)