Tender knee - cleats or too many hills?

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Went out for a long, hilly ride Sunday and woke up Monday with a sore left knee. If you were looking at my knee straight on (and using my kneecap as the center point), the pain is very localized to point that roughly corresponds with "8 o'clock". So it's lower interior and slightly lateral. Tender to the touch, and worse today than yesterday.

Everything was exactly the same about the bike and the ride except for two variables:


I put on some new cleats (Speedplay zero) the day before. To the best of my abilities, I put them on in exactly the same place as the old ones, which were very worn and admittedly had lots of play.

I rode more hills than usual on Sunday, and included a couple of hard efforts. 3.5 hours total ride time. lots of endurance pace, a solid amount at tempo, with a few threshold efforts thrown in.


I'm hoping I just went too hard on Sunday, but if someone thinks I screwed up my cleats I'd be interested to hear the collective wisdom. If the latter, then I'll make an appointment and have my shop refit them (which is really inconvenient given my schedule).

[shovelhd]

It's probably a little of both. No matter how carefully I mark my Speedplay cleats before replacing them, the new ones never go back in exactly the same place. It takes me a few days to get used to it. I also back off on the float, and dial the float lock in over a course of a few rides.

I would take a couple of days off and then ease back into it. Day off, day off, recovery, recovery with tempo bursts, day off, then resume your normal schedule if there's no pain.

I am not a doctor, coach, or sage, so take this FWIW.

[jr59]

I would tend to think that may be more over use this early in the season.

Might very well be the cleats, but seeing where you live and the time of year it is. I would lean towards overuse.

[oldpotatoe]

Went out for a long, hilly ride Sunday and woke up Monday with a sore left knee. If you were looking at my knee straight on (and using my kneecap as the center point), the pain is very localized to point that roughly corresponds with "8 o'clock". So it's lower interior and slightly lateral. Tender to the touch, and worse today than yesterday.

Everything was exactly the same about the bike and the ride except for two variables:


I put on some new cleats (Speedplay zero) the day before. To the best of my abilities, I put them on in exactly the same place as the old ones, which were very worn and admittedly had lots of play.

I rode more hills than usual on Sunday, and included a couple of hard efforts. 3.5 hours total ride time. lots of endurance pace, a solid amount at tempo, with a few threshold efforts thrown in.


I'm hoping I just went too hard on Sunday, but if someone thinks I screwed up my cleats I'd be interested to hear the collective wisdom. If the latter, then I'll make an appointment and have my shop refit them (which is really inconvenient given my schedule).

Went from old cleats with lots of play, to new ones that are much more secure. I'd vote for that. Ride easy for a few days, I'll bet the knee issue will abate.

[AngryScientist]

i vote for a bit of both, leaning more towards overuse.

i know personally if i push myself when the weather is colder, my knees dont like it...

[FlashUNC]

i vote for a bit of both, leaning more towards overuse.

i know personally if i push myself when the weather is colder, my knees dont like it...

I learned this the hard way in December.

The new cleats and hitting it hard are probably the combination. Take it easy for a few days and see if it subsides.

[Ken Robb]

Ice it when you can, Advil/Tylenol,ride easy, and get as much float in your pedals until you feel better.

[AgilisMerlin]

I'd lube cleats with tri flow and take an easy week spinning around looking at the scenery

You'll probably be flying next week

I use zero's