What's up with my knee?
In preparation for a forthcoming bike ride across Tasmania (I'm heading to Australia May 10-20), this Saturday I tried to ride my mountain bike from Mutsu to Rokkaso, which I estimate to be around 40-50 kilometers. After going only 25 kilometers, I had to stop due to an increasing level of pain in my knees. It wasn't that my muscles were tired but that it was simple painful to bend my knees. I could have gone on a bit more, but I didn't want to do any permament damage.
Now, I have a history of pushing myself too hard without adequate preparation and hurting my knees.
-Once in NC I went on a four day hiking trip that we squeezed into three days by having a 12-hour marathon on the third day (it was really cold and we wanted to go home). I could hardly stand by the end of that.
-Last year at almost this time I wanted to do a 2 day bike ride to Hirosaki. I was able to ride for a day and a half before my knees went bad, which at the time I blamed on the fact that I had fallen on my knee once during ski season.
And that brings me to now, and I can't really explain why my knees went bad after only two hours of riding. Granted, it was very slow, difficult riding due to ridiculous winds, but still...
So I don't know nuthin about knee health. Do I just have "bad knees"? If I cycle small amounts more often, will my knees strengthen (this is what I'll try for...)? I also might try to run, but I've done some distance running before that never hurt my knees...
That's what's been on my mind.... Any health experts out there? The good news is that two days later, me knees feel fine (I think I stopped early enough to prevent really hurting myself)
posted by Chris @ 12:20 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
ok perhaps this was a dumb topic to post about without researching first. Within 10 minutes I found multiple pages about knee injuries on sports.
It appears that yes, strengthening the muscles around the knees will make them stronger, and that cycling longer than an hour could be too much for someone who hasn't been training. So, the moral is, I better get to work before going to Australia (not much time to get properly fit, but I'll do my best).
i don't know... I had no probs with my knee on that trip and hadn't been working it out. Also trained recently for a 5k but crammed it into a short period with no problem. Then in Utah I fell a little awkwardly but kept skiing. Since then I Have had my knee lock up a few times and almost felt immobile after a few minutes of tennis. Brother took a class on sports injuries and thought I probably sprained it so now I am doing very low level high-rep leg lifts and such to strengthen it.... Getting better. It might not hurt to get it checked out.
Well, I did go to the doctor after that hike, and he merely said I hadn't trained enough beforehand. He didn't do a thorough examination. Basically he was like "You hadn't hiked in a year and you tried to do a four day hike out of the blue? You're a moron."
My guess is that it's not all universal. Maybe most people can jump right into some knee intensive activities without being fit, but I can't. Most likely, I need more exercise all around. I was doing well in the winter when I was snowboarding on weekends and practicing karate in the week. Lately I've been slack about karate and it's been too cold for me to want to do any other kind of outdoor exercise, but I'd like to get into regular running or cycling.
"Basically he was like 'You hadn't hiked in a year and you tried to do a four day hike out of the blue? You're a moron.'"
Heh, pretty much. Seriously, that's the basic reason right there. Unfortunately we're not the spry kids we used to be anymore, so now we have to "get back into it" first, slowly and steadily. Given how you mentioned it to the doctor he didn't need to do a thorough examination to tell you why you were hurtin'. ;)
As for the people who can jump right in, they probably can cos they've been generally more active/healthy and thus are able to. I mean, it's the same thing with kids. The kids who're always running around crazy, you can through them in pretty much anything. The lazy fat kids who only play WoW and never exercise? Yeah, not so much.
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