Knee Pain

I've been trying to ramp up for this double century ride from Santa Monica, CA to Santa Barbara, CA coming up at the end of this month. In doing so, I think I've increased my training too quickly and as a result I've injured my left knee. The pain is on the anterior and mostly lateral part of my knee and it's a sharp pain. It really bothered me over the weekend to the point that I had to basically coast home. It really seems to bother me when pounding up an ascent.

After doing a bit of research it appears likely that I may have jumped into long distances and steep climbs without a proper training base. There may also be some slight fitting problems on the bike.

I found a great site that had a lot of information to help with the research on this issue. I do recommend seeking professional advice as well as further research on your own above and beyond what is posted.

Cycling Related Knee Injury Link

To cut to the chase, it seems my seat may be a bit too low and perhaps too far forward. Also, I've been climbing a lot of hills and one of the possible causes for what I'm feeling could be attributed to pushing a big gear at a low cadence. Also, and I suspected this as well, it seems I need to check out the float and position of my cleat as I could be putting too much pressure on the lateral side of my left foot due to an inward positioning of the cleat on my shoe. So, I'll be laying off the hills for a bit until this starts feeling better.

I'll also look around for a good fitter as well and see about getting refitted. I've been enlightened to look for F.I.S.T. (Fit Institute SlowTwitch) certified shops to do the fitting. They mostly boast of tri-bike fitting, but they train retail shop personnel about bike fitting. I've heard that the people that are certified know all of the in-n-out's of bike fitting and you can be sure that they aren't just telling you a bunch of BS to make a buck.