The trouble with knees

I've had some issues with my right knee since Nov '06 that I can trace to an evening of sit ups followed by a lunch run the following day. To be honest I'm not sure if either of those events has any bearing on my current condition but the pain started a few hours after the run so they at least seem to be related. So I haven't run since which honestly hasn't been a problem since I didn't enjoy it much to begin with. What has been a nuisance is the fact that my knee aches following hard rides. So last month I decided to see an Ortho and met with Dr. Eric Heiden at TOSH. He took some x-rays and quickly determined that I was experiencing patella-femoral pain probably due to a slight misalignment of my upper and lower leg bones. In addition to consistent stretching he felt that my position on the bike should be looked at so walked me upstairs to meet Dr. Max Testa. I won't go into details but needless to say these two really know their stuff. I scheduled a bike fitting for the following week with Dr. Testa where he later shimmed my cleats to bring my right knee into proper alignment and correct for a slight leg-length discrepancy. After a year of Ibuprofen and Naproxen I am finally starting to ride without anti-inflammatories.

So what I really wanted to touch on is Glucosamine Chondroitin supplements. Drs. Heiden and Testa recommended that I give it a try for a month. So I picked up a bottle from Costco on Monday and have been taking one pill with breakfast and dinner. It's still too early to tell if it is helping but I wondered if anybody else is using it and, if so, has it helped? Coincidentally, Coach C touched on this exact subject in his weekly newsletter. Hopefully my experience will be as good as his.