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Noted - tried this last night and much less uncomfortable so thank you. Still no idea what I've managed to do, have signed up to the NHS app to try and get a virtual appointment with a doc.
Dexter-
Cool, glad it worked. Good luck with the doc.
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@dexter couple of days late, but pain at the side of the knee suggests injury to one of the collateral ligaments - on the outside of the knee it’s the lateral collateral ligament. Unlikely to be a catastrophic injury so as others have said, rest, ice, compression and elevation. The most important of these are rest - definitely avoid big rides until the pain has gone - and ice. The way I was taught to ice a musculoskeletal injury is ice every 2 hours for about 20 minutes, until it’s uncomfortably cold, for a couple of days at least. It really does work if you do it properly.
It’s worth checking your cleat position because this may be causing uneven load to your knee. I found these pictures which are simple but quite useful. The Q angle is the angle between the upper and lower part of the leg seen from the front (femur and tibia).
@TM as stated above, clicking suggests cartilage (meniscus) tear. No easy solution but should improve with rest and physio. You can find physio exercises online, you have to be very diligent and do exercises every day for six weeks at least to see any improvement. MRI may be useful to find the exact injury but you would only be offered surgery if you knee is locking, and as you say wouldn’t happen any time soon anyway. Waiting time for these even pre-Covid is quite long unless you went private. Any sports doc / physio / orthopaedic surgeon will advise physio to start with.
Full disclosure - I am a doctor but not a sports or orthopaedic specialist. I am not working currently so thought I could be a bit useful here!
jj72
DrDave
I’m just into the fourth week of the couch to 5k running programme, and the last couple have left me with a pain below my left knee. I’ve been icing it for about 20 minutes after the run and it’s helped a great deal. My wife suggests rather than elevating the knee, I sit lengthwise on the sofa and place a couple of cushions under the knee, so that the leg is like a pyramid, and the apply the ice pack. As a cyclist my knee doesn’t like being held dead straigh for more than a few minutes, so keeping it up but crooked is a much better idea. Try that instead.
PS. I’m writing this with an ice pack on my left groin instead tonight. That’s what happens when you take up running after 40 years of cycling!