Knee pain

Over the last few weeks, my knees have been bothering me on the rides.  Some people said it was too much riding, too soon.  Some people suggested my seat was too low. Some said it was my cleat position.  Some said it was that I pushed too hard of a gear and needed to do light, fast spinning instead.

I wasn't too worried about it because there were a lot of potential contributing factors and I was trying to work through them all.

Sadly, despite trying to pay attention to ALL of those things (cleats and seat fixed, took time off from riding, and really focused on lighter gears), after Sunday's ride, my right knee is in extreme pain.  It's different than anything I've felt before, it actually concerns me that I've done some damage to it.  I'm icing it, taking ibuprofen and resting it, but it feels just as bad as when I got off the bike on Sunday.  I'm thinking I'll need to get a scan of some sort, or an expert to take a look at it.  The chances of it correcting itself seem really low, and I run the risk of permanently damaging something if I continue to ride (may have already done damage....who knows?).

I'm super bummed.  I'm proud of the training I've done.  Sunday I did some really fast training with a group, followed by a solo jaunt over to the Boulder foothills again, and then climbed the Flagstaff hill up to the Amphitheater, and rode all the way back home.  All in all, I did just over 76 miles that day (122kms).  The climb up to the Amphitheater was brutal.  Not really any breaks, and a fairly steep pitch.  It had our heart rates screaming the entire time.  A little bit more about it here: http://303cycling.com/flagstaff-hill-climb-boulder-colorado

View after the climb

Success.....and a red face!!!

This week's plan is to rest the knee....and ice the knee......and try to figure out what is going on with the knee.  I can't even do alternative exercise at the moment-it's that messed up. :-(