Knee Pain

I chose a challenging workout plan so I could do my best at the triathlon. Unfortunately, I think I may have overdone it a little bit starting out. I went from working out every now and then to working out almost every day. This has caused some knee pain.

I think the main problem is spinning/biking. I have been experiencing some pretty intense knee pain after spin class. My knees have been kind of crooked since I can remember. I'm kind of paranoid about it, but it hasn't caused me any physical pain or issues in the past. When I started spinning they immediately started hurting for several days after class. I spoke with the spin instructor and she gave me some advice on setting up the bike correctly. This made a huge difference in my knees. About a week ago I got on a different type of bike that didn't have the same settings and my knees hurt for over a week afterward. I've done more spinning since then, properly aligned, but I think it just keeps re-agitating my knees. I've been really nervous about it because I'll spend the majority of the race on the bike.

I've self diagnosed myself with quadriceps tendonitis. It is the inflammation of the quadriceps tendon. That is the tendon that attaches your kneecap to your quad muscle. I have been experiencing pain above the kneecap and there is some kind of mostly painless popping going on in that area when I bend my knee all the way.

My yoga/spinning instructor was nice enough to spend some time with me to look at my knees. She thinks the problem is that my inner thighs are much weaker and tighter than my outer thighs. The weakness of the inner thighs causes my knees to knock in. That alignment issue then causes the knee pain. She gave me some stretches and exercises to do to help. I am so appreciative of her help and time. I think her advice will help me get to the point where my knees don't hurt after biking.

In the meantime, ice seems to help so I'll be RICE(Rest Ice Compress Elevate)-ing it up!