Recuperating / rehabilitating knee pain - what's your experience?

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So I thought I was going to start training today (Monday) but Saturday I went on the slowest of all group rides (seriously we averaged less than 11mph over 30 miles, under 50% FTP) and holy hell did my knee hurt. I had experienced some minor soreness after a weeklong 338mi 11k ride through TN and MS in early October - I thought that soreness would go away. I hadn’t ridden in a week and I expected to feel fresh. I did not.

It’s a dull pain not a sharp pain so I don’t think there’s something a doctor needs to see there but I’m trying to figure out how long this thing is going to take to heal and what I should or shouldn’t do while it’s healing.

Someone on Reddit accused me of poor riding posture and demanded that I needed a bike fit - that’s not the issue and that’s not going to happen - I have ridden for 2,000 miles outdoor this year and I never experienced any pain. The issue is that I put too much pressure on my knee at the end of a 95 mile ride during that 338 mi week because I thought I was feeling great.

I did some very short high intensity intervals on the treadmill this morning and the knee doesn’t feel any different.

I’m not really interested in examining my situation - I’m more interested in hearing other people’s experiences.

What’s your experience with knee soreness? Do you power through? Spin only? Stay off the bike? How long did it take you to get better?

PS : Again looking for experiences, not advice.

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It’s probably an overuse injury and the only thing you can do to let it heal is give it enough rest.
The Bike-Fit tip is good advice, but you don’t seem to acknowledge. A lot of overuse symptoms will only show up when load is high. A full Bike-Fit does cost a bit of money but there are some things that you can do yourself. Bikefit James on YouTube is a good channel to make you aware of often made mistakes. More of his bikefit info can be found on Cade Media You Tube with this particular one of interest to you:

Shoe cleat adjustment, Stance width and excessive saddle height are high on the list for knee pain.

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I’m going to go cranky old man on the bike fit thing - I’m not paying someone $100s to tell me how to ride a bike - that’s just stupid. Sorry.

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Then don´t. But at least try to adress your knee pain and don´t let it become chronic.
The things I mentioned are easy to try out and don´t cost a cent. Just some of your time to understand what could be wrong and then remedy.

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