Tuesday, December 22, 2009

It's Depressing...

I'm changing jobs. Instead of 7 miles, my commute is now 16.

My knee hurts, especially when riding distance.

Is this the end of my bicycle commuting?




I hope not.

:(

14 comments:

Steve A said...

No. It's not, and you know it down inside. At worst,
drive part way or commute half as often.

Keri said...

Doohickie,

Is there anyone near you that can do a professional bike fit? It's really worth it. I've had incredible knee and hip pain issues fixed by my bike fit guy. It's often just a few millimeters of adjustment between comfort and grinding pain.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Keri is right. First, make sure oyur equipment is in good shape, no bent crank arms or pedal spindles, etc. Use cycling shoes- these will help a lot. Then get the position right, and you should be able to ride 16 in and go for a long ride coming home

Chandra said...

you can do it paul!

Doohickie said...

Thanks everyone for attending my pity party.

I just got back from a 12 mile ride (including riding by Myles's house). The knee felt pretty good.

I think the problem may be that I strained a ligament in my knee from overdoing it a few weeks ago. I need to learn to live within its limits until it gets better.

If I can't quite do the full 16 miles, there's a spot about halfway that I can park and then ride the rest. Eventually, though, I'm sure I'll be riding the whole thing regularly.

Doohickie said...

Oh, and Keri- about the bike fit: What does that cost? $100? $200? That's more than I paid for any of my bikes. I'm not about to take a bike I pulled out of a dumpster in for a fitting. That would be silly.

fred_dot_u said...

Keri suggested that a few millimeters can make a difference. That was my first thought after reading your post, but it was followed by this:

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5817979/

Velouria said...

I hope you feel better soon, and honestly I don't think things are as negative as they seem to you:

You shouldn't confound having hurt your knee with the longer commute. With a hurt knee, even a 5 mile commute would be miserable, so take care of that first until it's completely better. Once it is fully recovered, you may even prefer the longer commute.

Wishing you all the best for the holidays!

Doohickie said...

I'm just too stubborn and impatient to let things play out in their own good time. Bah. Humbug.

;- )

jtgyk said...

I'm too stubborn, also. Of corse that's why I've had sub 60 miles/month for the last 2 months.
I'll get to feeling a bit better and commute for a couple days thereby undoing the recouperation.
The hardest thing is sucking it up and (gulp) driving until I'm completely well. Grrr!

Elizabeth said...

I recently went through the fitting process and will report back on how it went. For starters, I found out my seat height and angle was off, my reach too far and my bars too wide.

Big Oak said...

For us do-it-yourselfers, the hardest thing to do is to let someone else do it (I'm talking about bike fit here), much less pay for it!

Remember you only have one knee (on that side), take care of it. You're going to need it for thousands and thousands and thousands of miles more.

Rat Trap Press said...

I hate to hear that you're still having some problems with the knee. About a year ago I attended a bike club meeting at a medical facility. They had a guest whose name I can't remember, but he specialized in fitting pros to their bikes. One thing I remember him saying is if you're not sure about your correct saddle height, it's safer for your knees to adjust the saddle too low rather than too high.

Where is your new work location?

Doohickie said...

West of 820, north of 30.