Did 500km in seven days and front of knee rather sore during last ride.
Took an eight day break off the bike. Did an hour low zone 2 today and can definitely still notice it. Quite sore this evening.
Any guidance on how long to rest, should I avoid bike completely? How about the gym?
If it helps I’m pretty certain it’s just an overuse injury as bike fit is on point. Went from average 5-7 hours a week to 21 hours in seven days.
So every injury is different for every person. When I first tried to do the festive500 in 2016 I gave myself an overuse injury that took 6 months to recover from, went to doc, got xrays, pt, bike fit, etc.
I definitely recommend (if you have good health insurance where PT is included) to get some Physical Therapy. Sometimes one can get lucky and learn some interesting stuff. 
There are three primary things I noticed in my recovery.
So, things you might try.
Funny story, so I had all this pain and I was playing pinball and had one leg forward and one leg back and I noticed my knee pain went down afterward. Sometimes in the morning while making breakfast I’d lean on the counter to keep my torso upright and extend one leg back to stretch out the hip/psoas.
I’ve also massaged my psoas (which isn’t easy or pleasant).
Again, n=1. Everyone is different. But none of the things I’ve suggested should do you any harm if you give them a try.
I also returned to riding by jumping on zwift and pedaling until I felt any pain, and then immediately stopping. I think the best #notADoctor advice I can give you is, if it hurts, don’t do it.
Good luck.
Ya everybody is different.
When I over used my knee. 3 super steep climbs in a row in the middle of a 100 miler. I had front of knee pain the next day (recovery ride). I was able to ride after a weeks rest. I started taking collagen. Heard it was good for tendon repair. I did very few hills for about a month. If I did them I would sit and spin up them. Every week I would test my knee by getting out of the saddle, if it hurt I would try next week. Over time the pain lessened where I could do harder hills without much pain. I think it took about 5 months to get back to climbing without pain.
Good luck and hope you find something that works.
I got patella tendonosis during a 350 bikepacking race….big miles and hardly any sleep. Went to PT and did all the workouts for 2 months and it still was an issue. Went to the doc and he did dry needling and it was good within a week.
Eesh… was hoping it was a ‘two weeks off’ kind of thing.
I had ITB issues earlier in the year so religiously all over rolling / stretching / glute strengthening. Hoping that stands me in some good stead for recovery here. Thanks for the insight.
Well don’t worry too much about it. I have a strong feelng if I had known early how to fix it it would have been a few weeks. The issue was discovering the issue was based around my hip flexor/psoas. That took a long time to figure out (and I had to figure it out myself while playing pinball ). You’re going to be back at it in no time.
I’ve had patellar tendinitis on and off for awhile. Reverse step ups and walking backwards on a grade help and I’m working on my adductors and stretching my it band. Have done plenty of other stuff that didn’t seem to help. Occasionally take 1-2 doses of ibuprofen if it’s bad. Managed to get thru the Raphael 500 without much pain this year but kept the if at 0.5-0.55 so it was at low intensity. 16 hours though so for me a really big week.
You are doing the right thing……trying to learn all you can. We’re all an experiment of 1 with knee pain. I hope to learn here too!