Repetitive use injuries?

[liberty]

See if your bike shop can put a forefoot medial wedge (like in Specialized BG shoes) into your current bike shoes.

Hey KnottedYet, my road shoes are Specialized BG Torch Women's... So do they already have the medial wedge in them?

When my dad found out about my knee, he told me about an old PT exercise his doctor gave him way back when. And no joke, as soon as I did the exercise, my knee felt better. Woke up the next day feeling great! I'm icing the knee too, and putting on arnica cream.

Basically the exercise is this: sit on the edge of a chair, extend your leg, and lift it higher than the height of a coffee table. Do 3 reps of 10. Once that is easy, add some weights. I obviously haven't added weights at this point, but I can do the 3 reps fine. Doing a 2 week rest period and then see how it is. Then some time afterwards, I will go pay the big bucks and get another bike fitting.

I will keep you ladies posted. Your responses really encouraged me. I seriously thought I'd have to sell my bike. Guess you don't realize how liberating biking is until you are faced with the possibility of not doing it any more. My life wouldn't end, and things would be fine. But still, I'd miss it terribly.

[sundial]

Liberty, another great exercise my pt's advised me to do was this:

Sit with your back to the wall.
Bend the right knee and bring it to the chest, clasping your knee with your hands. Keep the left knee straight.
Raise the left knee slowly off the floor about 8-10 inches. Hold for a couple of seconds. Release and slowly drop it back to the floor.
Do 25 reps, 3 sets.
Repeat with the other knee.

You might want to consider making some dietary changes as well. I noticed simple sugars will cause an inflammatory response in my joint so I stay away from processed foods and simple sugars.

Also, I drink Joint Juice which has glucosamine and vitamin c. It's endorsed by the Arthritis Foundation.

www.jointjuice.com

I hope this helps. It's no fun being sidelined due to a cranky knee.

[dreadpirate]

there's also some data to support taking glucosimine and chondroitin in a certain dosage - this may help (I've heard it's good for things beyond arthritis, and joint therapy in general).

http://arthritis.about.com/od/glucos...lucosamine.htm

How do you feel about cross-training in the interim? Using something like the elliptical, or swimming?

[liberty]

dreadpirate (Princess Bride fan?? ) - I am taking glucosamine right now. It does help a lot. I was off it for about a month or so, and just started back up about a week ago... Maybe the absence is why things got rough all of a sudden. Gives me something other that overuse to blame the weakness.

[Di bear]

I tried treating my knee for arthritis and other fun stuff. None of it worked. I finally talked to my chiropractor about it and he told me my IT bands were tight. They were pulling the patella out of alignment. So, he has me stretching.

A friend of mine is a massage therapist. She checked out my legs as well and noticed the same thing my chiro did. She also has me doing stuff. It's working. So, it may not be joint-related, but muscled-related.

Also, check that your seat is the right height. (You can have knee pain if it's too low.)