2021 Riding Journal Part 1: Knee Injury and Rehabilitation

After the National Hill Climb Championships at the end of October, I had a 3-week off-season to recover and re-adjust ready to start training for the 2021 season. I went for a few runs each week, during this the time off the bike.

When I started training on the bike again, I realized I had some pretty nasty knee pain, after some short rest periods off the bike, the pain wasn't really going away. When I was pedaling my right knee was chopping into the top tube whilst I was pedaling, which certainly didn't help the pain.

I hadn't run in a while and my legs weren't prepared for the impact of running. I jumped straight into long runs, without building into it much; which I do regret now, but I can't change it. I also think a longer rest period won't do any harm in the long run and I'm more motivated than ever at the moment.

After 2 weeks of rest recovery, stretching and lots of icing. I went for a ride to see how it was. It was still painful!

Was my knee ever going to get better? A question I kept asking myself, however has helped me in my search for solutions.

I asked a friend who is also a doctor and he decided to try some acupuncture. Surprisingly this did seem to help things a lot. I had a total of 4 acupuncture sessions. David (my coach) sent me a lot of exercises to try too. I also did a lot of researching myself how to fix knee pain and I found a lot of stretches, foam rolling and conditioning exercises which helped (stay tuned for a post on this).

I could feel the knee was getting better each day. It took a month and a half of rest and exercising and still my knee isn't quite right, but I'm working hard on it. I'm back on the bike again now, albeit very gently and only gradually building intensity and duration. I started off putting the bike on the turbo trainer and I swapped the clipless pedals for flats and I did 2 easy rides of an hour long really gently. That went alright so I had a little of bit intensity on the next ride, which also went OK. I did another 3 rides on the turbo, before I headed out for a gentle ride on the road with my cleats back on.

I've still got a long road ahead, but I'm hoping it will be smooth. My knee is still healing. Any increases in effort are going to be gradual for the time being. Conditioning, stretching and foam rolling will be a big part of my recovery and future training.

Thank you for reading and please stay tuned for updates.

Matt