Here we go again. Seems a repeat of last year but with more kilos to lose! Anyway, am back on the Turbo with some good rides to watch, plus joined a spinning class for 12 weeks – lets hope this sorts me out! No real plans as yet apart from the White Horse Challenge, but lets see what the year brings. I have /really/ missed the bike.
http://app.strava.com/athletes/313540 – just shows how little cycling I have done!
I bought and set up the Turbo trainer in Feb last year, and that was the first time back on the bike and meaning it for 12 years (and that was only a year on the bike after a previous 12 year break!). Â Started commuting in April, and weekend rides in June. Did about 1200 miles overall I think.
600 miles in the first 3 months of this year. 2 sportives, 8 club rides and 46 commutes. Went out this morning, got 15 miles before my right knee started to twinge again.
Gave up, came home and Googled knee problems. ITBS. Ergh. It all seems to add up – too much intensity, low cadence in cold weather, slight bow leggedness, some pronation. There’s no magic cure for this it seems and it looks like I’ll miss Princes Risborough at least.
I don’t think I’ve overdone it this year, (plenty of proper racers have trained far harder) – maybe not from a low starting point though – and with no proper recovery. Stretching was something I was aware of but didn’t practice. So far this year, it went well until about 3 weeks ago, when I started getting severe knee pain either after some miles, or sometimes just moving my leg at a certain angle. I rested it for a solid week before yesterday, to no avail.
So far two professionals have looked at it. A Physio who thought it was a cartilage issue, and an Osteopath who thought it was IT band. I think the Physio might have been distracted as I was getting a lot of ‘joint’ pain at first (now I think referred). She gave me half a dozen stretches to do, which is a good start. Off back to for a second session now I can feel exactly where the pain is coming from, so I should soon know one way or the other.
A couple of good articles amongst the web chaff have helped http://www.aafp.org/…0415/p1545.htmlhttp://alexreisner.com/itband, but neither have simple answers.
So, feeling pretty shitty right now (sportive plans all blown out etc) but Hey, I’m still over a stone lighter than in June and a _lot_ fitter than I’ve been for years, and everyday life is not affected (its a very cycling/hillrunning specific injury apparently). Just hope I can find a way through this. To be a decently competitive cyclist was not something I even considered until this new year, so this setback is against a very new set of personal targets.
bemused 