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Past couple of months if I go for a pedally ride on my mtb my knee/legs issues have been really bad, normally if I do my prescribed physio work everything operates relatively pain free and relaxed, however it's been different recently, scratching my head as to why and what has changed, penny just dropped this coincides with my first time regularly using a turbo trainer.
My mtb setup is flat pedals, I place my foot pretty mid-foot. My turbo is clipless with some "workout" clipless shoes, the cleats are slammed back but a still will like them about another 1/2" further back. The flat pedals have been feeling more and more wrong, all weight going through the outside of the ball of my foot, pretty much no force going through the ball at my big toe, I think this is a recent development.
Reckon the conclusion that I'm drawing that the turbo setup has made my leg develop in such a manner its ruining flat pedals for me is reasonable based on the observation?
There's a simple solution? Same pedals on both?
Stick the clipless set up on the mtb and go for a ride, that should rule it out, or not.
Another variable I just cottoned onto, stance width, 30mm narrower on the turbo setup.
say what now ?
Do you mean the Q factor? The distance between the two pedals ?
Yeah distance between both pedals, stance width. Q factor is an input to stance width.
It is more likely the "fixed in place" nature of the turbo as opposed to the intricate biometrics of the position. Much more likely to cause injuries than the varied range of movements used randomly in actual bike riding (IMHO).
I've been through lots of this myself, I think it just boils down to getting used to things and introducing stuff slowly, e.g. if you've gone from just MTB to suddenly smashing out the turbo miles then that's a big change and your body needs to adjust.
Did you go from no turbo to several hours a week? Is it always full gas Zwift racing or are you still maintaining the same ratio of high/low intensity throughout the week?
I even found I had to introduce myself to intervals gently, I couldn't just start doing 4x9 40/20s once a week without knee pain, instead I need to start tagging an interval set onto the end of my usual sweetspot workout and will gradually build up the number of reps from there as the knees get used to it.
Sadly, as one who desperately wants to get fast and train hard, I'm finding how embarassingly prone I am do overdoing things and aggravating old over-use injuries, a combination of heart rate monitor on all rides to keep the intensity down for 80% of the time, and Veloviewer to keep tabs on weekly riding hours helps to protect me from myself!
say what now ?
Presume he means q-factor
Personally, I'm not convinced at all by this whole mid-foot thing, it just feels weird, I ride flat pedals in basically the same way I ride SPD's
If my cleat's are 'wrong' then I get all sorts of aches and pains. So my first option would be to set the cleats up a bit more neutral/normal and not slammed all the way back.
Personally, I’m not convinced at all by this whole mid-foot thing, it just feels weird, I ride flat pedals in basically the same way I ride SPD’s
This.