Knees/ IT band again!

A little update on my knee issues:

I took 2 weeks off the bike in September. That sort-of helped, even though I went bananas. It still hurts, but now it's not so much my knee and more up toward my hip and hamstring, which makes me think it's IT band-related. The knee thing sometimes flares up, and it's sometimes the outside (presumably in the IT band area), and the inside at the top of the knee cap. It's a very specific spot, so I think it's either a muscle or tendon attachment there. Human anatomy is not my strong point. ;) My bike shop job has not been helpful in this--my boss sent me home because the hip thing was so bad (I kept leaning on the counter) not too long ago. It's not walking that does it, or even so much riding. It's standing for more than three hours. Yoga helps. I'm fairly sure that it's an overuse injury (paging Catrin!) after that accidental 70-mile ride without a consistent 60+ base. I had planned on a century for my 25th birthday later this month, but that's not going to happen. I started riding short (15-20 miles) rides again, and my knee's still not too thrilled about it, but it's not bad if I focus on a proper pedal stroke and stay in a reasonable gear. I have new pedals picked out (something my fitter suggested) and I need to head down to Cincy to try on some Sidis before I pull the trigger. I tried every pair of road shoes in the shop that we had in my size and they were all too wide in the heel!

I'm looking into getting an appointment with a sports-medicine doctor (and PT if necessary) for it. I have a few recommendations from a friend and from my boss and at least one is in-network. Just a matter of finding out from my insurance company if they require a referral, then contacting my GP if necessary.

It sounds like we have the same problem. For me it is an unstable patella, and that part at the top of the inside of your knee is where the quad attaches to the knee. I am focusing on strengthening that, but sadly when it flares it takes time to go away. This also seems to make it easier to tweak my old over-use quad/hammie injuries of 2 years ago... When my knee is flaring then either sitting or standing for long periods of time isn't fun. You will also want to make certain your adductors/abbductors are strong. Everything is connected ;)

We can cheer for each other :)

Well ... my totally uneducated feeling is that if standing hurts and yoga helps, it's some combination of feet and low back. Knees are basically at the mercy of what goes on above and below them. I forget what exercise program you're doing, but I guess if I were you I'd really be emphasizing flexibility and strength in the feet, hips and lumbar spine. (Which I am, actually, though my knees are the least of my troubles right now :rolleyes:). When you're standing, concentrate as much as you can on standing on four corners of your feet. Do your little foot exercises inside your shoes, and standing pelvic tilts and clocks, when you have a moment at work.

Good luck... (and as I said to someone else and I might've come off condescending, though that really was not my intention - there are plenty of free anatomy charts online, and it can be REALLY helpful for me to look at them when I'm trying to nail down what's going on)

Definitely follow through with a sports med evaluation and PT, if necessary. It could be your ITB, but if it is, there may be something else that's causing or contributing to it. For instance, when my hip and groin started hurting a couple years back, I never would have guessed that my weak glutes were the primary cause. As Catrin said, everything's connected.

Yep, everything is so related, and things manifest themselves in different ways. Let us know what your sports doc has to say on all of this. Just because it sounds like what I am currently dealing with doesn't mean it is the same thing. For me the IT Band was a red herring, it is about my kneecap wanting to go walk-about at bad times. Thankfully it appears to be settling down for now...

I'm no expert on this. My bf (who rides road) had ongoing patellar tendonitis in one knee for a long time and finally had it investigated a few years ago. Seems the groove his kneecap rides in is a little shallow. A tight IT band pulled on the patella, causing tendonitis. He did some massages to keep the patellar tendon loose and some temporary taping of the kneecap to keep it on place. He also started with the foam roller to loosen the ITB. It's been a couple of years and he has been free of knee pain, he still uses the roller regularly and does a few basic stretches every day. He uses Speedplay and Frog pedals for the float.

Think about the rest of your life, too, since many of us spend most of our time OFF the bike. How you sit, stand, walk, work...it all adds up. I developed terrible hip and back problems that had nothing to do with my cycling, but everything to do with my posture over my lifetime, my work setup, and my stress levels.

Feel better soon.

Roller, roller ,roller it will help "iron" out the soreness.

A knee exercise (a little hard to explain)
sit on floor
bend knee so foot is flat on floor
take your fingers and lightly press against the muscle where it ties into the top inside of your knee. While lightly pressing/touching contract the muscle for 2 seconds, release and repeat several times. The reason you touch the muscle with your fingers it to trigger the nerves and basically say "hey muscle, I am talking to your" Sometimes when we contract our quads we are just using the larger part of the muscle and those little fibers get lazy. Whenever my knee starts to bug me I immediately go back to doing these a few times a day.

A good PT will be able to get you on the right path to working out the kinks.