How long of a recovery time am I looking at? I don't do much running anymore, just cycling and weight training. Will I be able to cycle fairly soon after surgery?


Everyone is a bit different, and your pathology and situation is unique to you, but I had a scope done on my knee a long time ago - early days for Arthroscopic surgery in 1985. I had, had an achy left knee after a severe bruising of my knee (long story) about a year before. It was never the same. No amount of physio or other "work" was helping.

Going in and having a look was what was suggested. What they found was some cartilage floating around in the joint and a bit of trauma on the backside of the patella that was consistent with a possible micro fracture of the patella - from the severe bruising/contusion. They took out the floating cartilage, shaved off some of the scar tissue on the back side of the patella.

I was back cycling in 2 - 3 weeks and running at about 3 - 4 weeks, super easy. I've had periodic episodes of achiness with my Left knee - they told me post surgery that it would never probably feel as good and the same as my right knee - but 9 Ironmans, 4 marathons, and hundreds thousands of kilometers of cycling later, it still feels pretty good!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

That would be a great question for your ortho guy... but in my case I was back to things within a month or so. That was basketball, mowing the lawn.. wasn't a triathlete then. My guy wanted me up and walking the day after surgery but I wasn't quite ready for that but it was relatively quick for recovery post surgery.

About 2 weeks and then on the trainer. Easy running in about 4 weeks, a sprint tri (with easy running) in 6 weeks.

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Andrew Inkpen

It could be a few weeks but everybody case is different,
The main issue is to get the post op swelling down.

In mine it literally was like an oil change
Felt smooth and clean