Got home from a 35 miler on the new bike last week….got off the bike and had a really tight calf. OR so I thought. As the day went on, it feels more top of calf, back of knee and outside of knee.

No recollection of feeling it riding, 4 days later I am still hobbling around a little.

Am wondering whether the saddle was fractionally too high…since corrected it. But only have the pain in one leg, didn’t feel anything obvious while cycling.

Any ideas?

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Deep-vein-thrombosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Ebola? Could be the cat aids..
or both!

helpful. Thanks! 🙂

Your wife is having an affair.

DVT was my first thought too. Is it red and feel hot?

Clots are more likely to develop following periods of inactivity however the consequences are so serious I would always rule it out first before continuing!! 🙂

Buy some new wheels, that’ll cure it.

Oh, and avoid pudding for a month.

Could be your ITB?* Or IBT? Or that cat aids, like they said up there ^^?

*Could actually be this one.

Could be your ITB?* Or IBT? Or that cat aids, like they said up there ^^?

You mean the iliotibial band? Could be, if it wasn’t located in the thigh lol

and outside of knee.

Ah, I see what you mean. Wouldn’t have started in the calf though 🙂

Thankfully it’s not red and hot, nor is it throbbing when I am resting. No pain when resting at all, as it happens…just when I walk, or try and put a stretch through it.

Can’t run….can cycle very gently, without hills.

So from my understanding of the brain and how it manages the body – poor jaw, shoulder and hip posture can lead to imbalances in how the muscles work

The calf pain is obviously symptomatic of an imbalance…is it your left calf / left thigh? I only ask cos in most people that’s the side that normally goes.

Your other joints then compensate to prevent the calf from becoming more damaged – hence the other joints stiffen and the itb gets overworked. It’s ITB syndrome but lots of stuff to do to fix it

Btw – I’m not a physio but have seen some decent ones

Can’t run….

No great loss. If God meant us to run he wouldn’t have invented the bicycle.

Ianap…

Pain in the outer knee can be carteledge, mine was, told to rest as it rebuilds itself. Seems to be working, mine was caused by too many miles too soon. Try and mix it up with swimming, walking,anything but just cycling.

Some v funny responses above

I am a physio, some of the answers so far are a bit misguided.

To me it sounds like a soft tissue injury although there is not really that great an amount of info to go on. My guess is that the new bike has a different position and or gearing and that has meant the muscle working in a different way. The calf muscle does extend over the knee so could well give pain into the area you describe.

There are other possible answers as well but I would start with the simplest. Apply some ice, NSAID gel if you can use it, give it a few days and it should hopefully begin to settle. Some gentle stretching may also be useful.

Let it settle before trying the bike again and do a smaller distance. If it still is a problem then to get an accurate diagnosis you will have to ask your GP to refer, although some areas have self referral or find a private physio.

Does it hurt when you walk up stairs?

Sounds very similar to the discomfort I experienced when I started to fancy myself as a bit of a time trialler. I lowered my bars a fraction, but also started to spend way more time on the drops or the classic elbows on the tops pose.

Net effect was to overstretch the hamstrings slightly and start causing microtears which eventually caused tendinosis. Took a lot of stretching and massage to shift it.

That being said, it was a gradual thing, took more than one 35 mile ride to cause it…

Thanks Guys. Have booked to see a private physio in the morning.

Was doing some heel dips earlier and then seems to aggravate it – in both directions. but managed a gentle flat and slow ride yesterday, which felt fine.

Have also measured saddle position on new bike v old bike and dropped it fractionally.

On the right leg… which is incidentally the leg I have a knackared achilles on, and the leg I broke. Possibly all connected…

Same crank length?
Different riding position?

Saw the osteo this morning. He thinks it’s a grade 1 calf tear rather than DVT – which should mean only a couple of weeks off the bike. a bit of rubbing and some acupuncture this morning.

Thought I would resurrect this as am still out of action.

I’ve seen a sports masseuse, who’s certainly helped with the calf. Pretty sure there was a tear there as there were a couple of very uncomfortable spots.

However, I am still with the pain in the back of the knee. probably three finger width both above and below the crease of the knee and down the outside of the knee. I managed a (very) gentle ride at the weekend. No pain during. Limping after. Saddle lowered slightly as well so as to take the back of leg out of the equation (at bottom of pedal stroke)

Also managed to see a physio who thinks it is tendonosis. Which I’d assume was an overuse injury. This year’s been pretty light in terms of cycling so am quite surprised.

Anyone else had this? Recovery time? Driving me mad!

3 “experts” and conflicting/inconsistent views?

Sports physioi is who I would see, luckily I know a good one,.

3 experts. 3 totally different conclusions.

last year we did a bike fitting seminar for top private physio’s working in the big banks in London

the overriding take away, was that the physio would be constantly busy dealing with the after-effects of poor bike fit / no bike fit = clients presenting every Monday with the same problem

have you looked at your position on your bike?

You mentioned in the original post it was a new bike. Different saddle position (if not adjusted) or different saddle can cause havoc

yep – I am pretty convinced now that the saddle on the new bike was fractionally too high. I’ve subsequently lowered it – and it feels better. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

the problem being that my problem just isn’t going away (even without cycling). I’d just love to know if anyone has suffered anything similar and other than bike adjustments, how they solved it!

Yes, I suffer from constat nagging muscle and joint pains in various un-connected bits of my body but mostly my left knee, which I blame on years of pushing a clutch pedal hundreds of times a day. Rubbing Ibuprofen gel seems to give a miraculous cure although I still can’t believe the molecule can be absorbed by the skin and find its way to the sore muscle; maybe it’s just the massage and endorphins. All I can say is: give it time and one morning you will realise you haven’t felt the pain for a while.

+1 for saddle too high, causing calf tightness, causing knee problems. Chances are your quads are too tight as well.

I’ve been having knee/achilles problems for a bit after perservering with a seatpost that really needed to be inserted an extra 10mm or so.

Getting a roller – not a foam one, one of those bars with spinning bits on it, will help you get at it as well.

Also managed to see a physio who thinks it is tendonosis. Which I’d assume was an overuse injury. This year’s been pretty light in terms of cycling so am quite surprised.

Anyone else had this? Recovery time? Driving me mad!

Yep, pretty sure I had exactly this. Took a lot of stretching (mostly basic stretches like hamstring, calf and IT band) plus lots of yoga style touching toes sort of stuff, basically learning to bend properly at the hips again.

Also some pretty good massage from a sports physio who (just for the hell of it) also tried some KT tape as *in theory* it is supposed to help improve blood flow if applied properly.

I don’t really believe it, and I’m sure there are qualified physios stampeding towards the thread to rubbish it, but I’ve felt some benefit since having KT tape applied, particularly to tight lower back muscles, so I’m prepared to have the wool pulled over my eyes for now 8)

I’ve been having massage and it’s been taped too. Not convinced that it works either but nothing to lose as it’s on offer!

Sounds like the proximal gastrocnemius attachment. Does it hurt to go on tip-toes? Particularly on a single (affected) leg?

The gastrocnemius is the muscle that bends the ankle down, which gets an incredible amount of use when pedalling a bike- even if the ankle isn’t actually moving that much, there is an incredible amount of force going through it so as to stop the ankle flapping upwards.

I have done similar, it also took ages (about 6 weeks). I got it from using a hire bike at a velodrome that was set up a bit wonky. In theory high load minimal reps (think 10x 60-70% rep max or even 6x 70-80% RM) should be the answer- but you’d be a brave man to try it! I scaled back my riding to just commuting (with no SCRing!!) and got over it that way. However consider strength training after you’ve recovered, so as to avoid a repeat injury. You need to toughen up those structures! 🙂

@shermer75 – yes it does hurt when I go on tip toes and also when in a deep squat (on the halls of my feet).

It’s been 6 weeks now.

I do a lot of strength training on it anyway- my Achilles is knackared on that side so am constantly eccentric loading it. And gym work, and yoga. But am wondering if the perfect storm of the Achilles, being dehydrated when it happened, bike fit just tipped it over the edge.

Plantaris innit

I had some weirdness with knee pain after riding a bike that was plainly too big. Physio sports guy said my hip flexors were rubbish and to work on those as all my knee stuff prob came from other muscles over compensating. This was 3 days before I broke my collar bone so can’t give any further report.
Seemed to make sense as to why I’m shit a running.
He also said flutes as well.
Glutes

Typical 3 hour road ride can see 16,000 revolutions of 1 pedal.

Imagine picking up a bag off the floor, 16,000 times. But you are twisted each time. It would get sore real quick.

Bad bike setups can quickly cause physical damage which can take considerable time to recover from even with good rehab.

I’ve experimented with heel wedging and took it one insert too far to examine the impact. During the etap London, after 100 km stopped in considerable pain, removed 1 wedge from each heel and pain disappeared within a few KM. It’s that subtle.

For the op, get fitted properly to your bike by someone who knows what they are doing. It makes a huge difference. Make sure they really understand feet and the critical foot/pedal interface, before you get anywhere near the saddle!

Plantaris innit

Not an obvious choice! Lol 🙂

It’s been 6 weeks now.

These niggling injuries can really hang around. They’re a nightmare!

You would do well to start keeping a diary with suitable subjective markers- ie how long it takes to pain to start when doing a particular exercise (eg cycling) or give the pain a mark out of 10 when you squat/stand on tip toes. This way you can see if you actually making progress or not, which is VERY important as this will decide if you need to adjust your treatment plan or not. Try and think back and work out if it has improved or got worse…

Sensible advice. I’ll keep a diary.

Today the physio rammed her thumbs into the side of the knee (or so it felt). Oddly, it feels as good as it has in some while afterwards.

I’ll try again on the bike this weekend. Just gently and see how we go.

Well.. thought I would provide an update after 3 months of this not getting too much better. Had an MRI scan last week and the follow up consultation today. I’ve got a Bakers Cyst – build up of fluid behind the knee.

Anyone else had one or recommendations how to treat it?!

anyone? *shameless bump*