Thursday, November 3, 2011

Stupid Knee...

Been hiding a bit as feeling sorry for myself the last few weeks, due to ending up on the injury bench. My left knee has been causing problems, I spent almost a whole week where I could neither fully bend or straighten my left leg and back of the knee was swollen...the cause of this injury...sitting at my desk!

Ok, it was after a busy and very, very long day (0900 - 2350) in which I barely moved from my desk (very unusual for me) and I could barely walk to my car afterwards. As I'm quite paranoid about knees I rested for a week which helped a little but tried a two mile run and it all swelled up again so sorted out some physio. Cycling was a bit painful, as was swimming too - which seriously peed me off! Possibly the most annoying thing was I fancy having a go at another half marathon early next year to motivate me over winter, had drawn up a rough plan and didn't even get to do the first run.

Its likely its really just some inflammation around the knee, not helped by tight calves (stretching) and possibly tight hamstrings, though at the same time I have pretty good range of motion in them? No ligament damage or anything and am slowly building things back in, single leg squats are my future.

Have now managed up to four pain free during and after running miles. Commuting is fine as its flat though at first had to drop quite a few gears for pulling away with the panniers. Swimming is ok now too (pushing off the wall hurt) and I've done a couple of MTB rides. Riding the On One was still giving me a few problems, I ended up sitting right on the nose of the saddle (not particularly comfy).

I have moved it forward quite a bit now and the back of my knee no longer hurts. This is slightly "amusing" as I had a problem with the VMO muscle on my left knee a few years ago that resulted in me moving all my saddles back and buying layback posts for the MTB, ho hum.

This has resulted in geometry and layback comparisons on all my bikes. Most of my bikes are around 74 degree seat angle apart from the On One with is a super slack 71 and the Kinesis which is 73. I also wasn't aware that seatposts can have different laybacks, up to a whopping 25mm on my Bianco (which compares to 10mm on the commuter). No wonder I had problems when I tried to set the saddles into same position on the rails!

Next thing to try is some road hills, hopefully this weekend, if the annoying cold I now appear to be nursing disappears.

On a cheerier note, my new commuter is built (Jez did end up doing it but I stripped and cleaned the Ribble components, which took ages). I love riding it, love commuting with the panniers, it just feels so much more relaxing not having the weight on my back, it changes the whole feel of my commute. I love the mudguards and it seems more comfy on the rough roads than the Ribble it replaced. Not sure whether that is the frame or the 25mm tyres (find it hard to believe its the tyres).

Speed wise I think its about 1mph slower overall than the riding the Ribble with a rucksack, but I am slower at this time of year anyway. More importantly it is probably about 2mph faster than the Spesh...probably triple that in a serious headwind as I can get down on the drops. Stealth black to a bit of more visible colour (my Garmin now matches):

Let the bike stripping commence...

IMG_0836

Physio tonight, hopefully will be more in the land of the active now!