Just today I started to get a little pain in my right knee in the outside lower knee cap area. It sorta comes and goes. It doesn’t seem to be triggered by anything specific. I could just be walking along all fine then suddenly I’ll get a mild burning sensation (kinda hard to explain) but just for a little bit.
Anyone know what this could be? I googled it but it’s kinda hard to describe.
The only thing I can think of that may have had a play in it was I adjusted my cleats outward so my foot would be closer to the crank. This was about a week or two ago. I haven’t had any pain while on the bike.
Also I’ve been tapering so it doesn’t seem like its from overuse.
edit: Could it be ITBS? I just looked it up and it seems close to what I have.
Hard to say without being a little more specific but we often go to the suspect of IT band which shares some fascia with the lateral patella. Couple things stand out … 1. is obviously the cleats position but I would think that the way you rotated toward the crank would put less stress on the lateral knee (do your cleats float) what was the reason for changing?. 2. during a taper we start to get a deeper recovery. These little “niggles” start to show up.
Neither of these two things probably helped you any as I basically restated what you posed as a question. What I would do is jump on it now especially if your nearing the final countdown. Get some ice to reduce any local inflammation and not knowing your medical Hx OTC NSAIDS are usually helpful (some of the Paleo folk will have you remove gluten and get some berry smoothies going and that is ok too). Start doing some extra stretching, the taper should give you some extra time to get this in. Getting on a foam roller is probably a good thing. I personally wouldn’t be running to the ortho yet as they will probably Rx: some NSAIDS and if your not better a few days before your race return so he can show you a big needle. Some on here would advocate ART. This may be a good option for you as it surely is not going to hurt and may be just enough to work out your ailment. Massage Therapy would be another option to try.
The whole other route would be… get to an ortho now, honestly if nothing is glaring they probably aren’t going to tell you much and give you a generalization like cycling knee… If you have the ability to get to a sports doc that understands multisport you may get a more favorable response but as I said before probably a script. But I would ask if you can get a PT script and work with a PT hopefully a good manual therapist that will work with the tissue to help resolve your problem quickly as sounds like it is running out.
I moved my cleats out so my foot would align with my knees when I tuck them in towards my frame, or at least that was my thinking. I just moved them so they are more centered. Do you think I should go all the way in? Thats how they were before on my older shoes.
I don’t have anytime to see anyone before the race. I’m leaving tomorrow when I get up so I guess I’ll just have to hope for the best.
Any drugs I could take like Ibuprofen or something?
Did not realize you were racing this weekend. Good luck … Motrin Advil Aleve would be the most commonly reccomended. Might wanna pack some Tyenol as it won’t help with any inflammation but may additionally help with the pain. I would not run today, let this thing calm down. get a dixie cup and fill it halfway with water and freeze it… peel the wrapper and do an ice massage you will get a deeper cooling and maybe push out any swelling that is in that bursa. use your regular ice method until its frozen the old cliche 20 min on 20 min off probably falls into play tonight. Honestly your probably not going to have a issue at this race… when you get full blown ITBS it is game over for a while and you would have been describing much more specific symptoms. Being you are so tuned itno your body at this stage in the game you probably caught it early.
Let us know how it went and when you get back please go get a bike fit and a foam roller.