The good news is that my shoulders feel a lot better with a longer stem (which I would never have guessed), and my weight feels a lot more balanced on the saddle. I'm truly on my sitbones and it's a good feeling.

The bad news is the fitter dropped my saddle 3 cm (!) even though I warned him I have patellofemoral issues. I understand his point about how I was using my ankles a lot, and that's not fashionable now, the way it was when I first learned to ride. But at the top of the pedal stroke - which I explained to him is where I have the problem if my knees flex excessively - I'm pretty sure my ankles have always been neutral at the top of the stroke, so there wasn't a lot to work with. And because of my tetchy knees I've never moved a saddle more than a couple of mm at a time before.

Bottom line, I felt okay on the trainer in the shop, I felt okay on the 16 mile ride home, but as soon as I got home my left knee started to swell - not a lot, but enough, and in a sickeningly familiar way.

So I raised my saddle, not all the way back, but 2 cm to give him some of the benefit of the doubt - and also because I had been getting some cramping in my lower legs and feet, which he said was related to using my ankles too much. I may ride tomorrow and maybe not until Friday. But I'm feeling like I need to stay off the commuter bike, too, especially because it's got really long crankarms and it isn't the best for my knees at the best of times. I did get a rental car to get me back from the airport the other night, so I'm not stuck at home, but I was really planning on taking it back today after I picked up my dry cleaning. And I just plain hate running errands of 3-5 miles in a car, any time, for any reason.

Not that there's ever a good time to be injured, but this is a really bad time. Keep your fingers crossed that my knee feels better tomorrow and the compromise seat height works out for me.