"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Ever fractured a bone? How long before you hit the road again?

Too general a question so I will give a little more detail....


It has been three weeks since I had surgery to fix a complete olecranon (tip of elbow) fracture.

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/figures/A00503F02.jpg


Good thing here is it was just the tip. My arm never came out of place and I didnt have any pain with the break other than hitting the pavement and bad swelling/internal bleeding. My Doc says everything looks great and I will start rehab in two weeks.. Says thats when I can start lifting weight with my arm.

Biggest issue is that the tricep muscle connects on/near the bone. To speed up healing I have been working on range of motion per doctors request so the tricep will "fire" again. He said everything is still intact (no tearing due to surgery or accident) but I need to relearn the muscle again. I can ride the bike indoors just fine using both arms/hands with no discomfort and each day my arm gets stronger. When I ride most if not all of my weight is on the rear of the bike so not much if any pressure is on this elbow.. Except for aero bars .... thats still an issue.

So my plan is to start riding on the road (assuming recovery goes fine) in two weeks and race in mid April. That gives me 5 weeks total recovery since surgery for my first road ride and a good 9 weeks recovery before racing. Now for my first few weeks back on the road I will not be sprinting or doing anything that could cause an issue (I hope). From what I have been told it would take another bike accident or other severe trauma for the bone to break away from the pin. I have asked several doctors including mine how long healing of a bone fracture like mine would take and the answers vary from 4-6 weeks to 6-12 months..... No wonder they call it a "practice".

I have had good luck with past bone fractures returning early (6 weeks for broken wrist and 4 weeks for broken collarbone) but wondering what others have done with fracture heals. Do you play it 100% safe and return only when the doctor gives you the OK or do you roll the dice and come back early? Keep in mind im not dealing with a sports doctor here. My old ortho doc is now out of my insurance coverage network so I had to see this guy :(



On top of it all im missing out on riding with the great Botto. I told my doc but he was not impressed. Clearly my doc dosent read BF.

On top of it all im missing out on riding with the great Botto. I told my doc but he was not impressed. Clearly my doc dosent read BF.

I've ridden with Botto....very smooth on the bike. He found me about 60-70 miles into a century (noticed my bike), and rode for about 20 miles or so. Good times.

last summer i fractured my left scaphoid. not fun at all. i'd fractured my right before and knew what i was in for... i played it 100% safe and didn't ride at all for a couple months and then some because the doc didn't want to risk the facture turning into a situation where the bone actually splits in two and requires surgery, some kind of metal pin, etc. etc.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1351/836811051_5a68c155ff.jpg

cracked my left pointer finger (the proximal phalanx to be specific) in a couple of places, thanks to a 12 year old girl turned right into my way, when i was riding past her in a reasonably wide bike path, going +/- 35kp/h.

http://www.eorthopod.com/images/ContentImages/hand/finger_fusion/finger_fusion_anat02.jpg

i wore a cast up to my elbow for 2 weeks, and 16 days after the accident, my first ride consisted of 180 painful kilometers over the 235km Liege-Bastogne-Liege cyclo-sportif (http://www.lbl-lechampion.nl/lbl.asp?pg=). not the smartest thing i've ever done in my life. especially considering that i could only really brake with my right hand.

don't rush it, we'll get our ride in. in the mean time, i'll yell at your team mates. ;)

Multiple fracture of the collarbone. I took a conservative 5 weeks off the bike, but it still hurt for a few months after that.

Usually takes at least a year before I become overconfident enough to crash again.

There is no definitive answer to this question obviously. Bones need time to heal, but if you can ride, you can ride. Know what I mean. It's your body, not the docs. Best of luck getting back quickly.

Usually takes at least a year before I become overconfident enough to crash again.

Hilarious. That's the sports mentality that keeps on giving.

There is no definitive answer to this question obviously. Bones need time to heal, but if you can ride, you can ride. No what I mean. It's your body, not the docs. Best of luck getting back quickly.

Thats the part driving me insane. My body "feels" like its good enough to ride on the road. I can support my weight on the bike with no discomfort at all while on the trainer. Every injury is different I know but I have none of the typical post-op issues described on the net other than its a little tender. I will give myself 5-6 weeks total heal time before hopping on the road. Dont plan on doing sprints or hard climbing for 8 weeks just to be safe.

Doc really ticked me off when he told me to stay off the bike for 2 weeks after surgery as theres a risk of infection. Week later when I came in to get my splint off I asked when I could get on the bike. His answer was "Since the day after your surgery". Thanks doc! :)

i broke my wrist last year and required surgery and physical therapy to get my motion back. I stayed off the road for like 2 months. it sucked but i didnt want to risk anything getting worse

last summer i fractured my left scaphoid. not fun at all. i'd fractured my right before and knew what i was in for... i played it 100% safe and didn't ride at all for a couple months and then some because the doc didn't want to risk the facture turning into a situation where the bone actually splits in two and requires surgery, some kind of metal pin, etc. etc.



I have broken both wrists (different times). At the time of the first one I was a avid golfer with a 5 handicap. Cast was on for 6 weeks and I was back playing at week 7 with no issues. My doc at the time was a sports ortho surgeon and also a golfer. He told me that once the cast was off feel free to do what I want long as I didnt have to strain. Said the majority of adults are too scared of hurting it again and dont move enough. Also since I worked out it sped up the healing process.

Second fracture happened last winter from speedskating as cross training for cycling. I skated while in the cast and was on the bike a week after it was removed.

Hate that every fracture is different. So hard to judge proper recovery.

Ive broken my arms way too many times to not feel embarrased about. So when I broke my arm last summer I was expecting to get casted up the same day and be back racing the next week. When I went to an ortho a few days later and they told me I needed surgery I was taken by suprised. He did the surgery like 3 days later and I never even got a cast.

Not being in a cast kind of sucked because I had to be more careful.

I started therapy a week later and they kept stressing to me that I had to be careful. They wouldnt even let me run! This depressed the hell out of me.

I went to therapy twice a week for weeks and I never got back full range of motion.

All that and I didnt even damage the tendons!

Ive broken my arms way too many times to not feel embarrased about. So when I broke my arm last summer I was expecting to get casted up the same day and be back racing the next week. When I went to an ortho a few days later and they told me I needed surgery I was taken by suprised. He did the surgery like 3 days later and I never even got a cast.

Not being in a cast kind of sucked because I had to be more careful.

I started therapy a week later and they kept stressing to me that I had to be careful. They wouldnt even let me run! This depressed the hell out of me.

I went to therapy twice a week for weeks and I never got back full range of motion.

All that and I didnt even damage the tendons![

dare i ask how?

Ive broken my arms way too many times to not feel embarrased about. So when I broke my arm last summer I was expecting to get casted up the same day and be back racing the next week. When I went to an ortho a few days later and they told me I needed surgery I was taken by suprised. He did the surgery like 3 days later and I never even got a cast.

Not being in a cast kind of sucked because I had to be more careful.

I started therapy a week later and they kept stressing to me that I had to be careful. They wouldnt even let me run! This depressed the hell out of me.

I went to therapy twice a week for weeks and I never got back full range of motion.

All that and I didnt even damage the tendons!


Every fracture is different but.... How long before you got back on the bike?

i was on the trainer about 2 weeks after the break but didnt get back on the road for something like 2 months. I could look at my training log if you really want to know

dare i ask how?

oh jeez. fighting twice, trying to be a soccer goalie, jumping off swings backwards, stacking up milk crates and jumping off onto a couch, jumping up to reach monkey bars and landing on exposed concrete, getting took out in a bike race

broke my ankle skateboarding

i think thats it

oh jeez. fighting twice, trying to be a soccer goalie, jumping off swings backwards, stacking up milk crates and jumping off onto a couch, jumping up to reach monkey bars and landing on exposed concrete, getting took out in a bike race

broke my ankle skateboarding

i think thats it

i didn't realize that you were that Steve!

http://www.aolcdn.com/red_galleries/steve-o-400ds0507.jpg

:(

Last year I fractured my wrist, scafoid?, was in a cast for five month. :(

A few years ago I broke both radial heads, complete on the left and partial on the right. A car right hooked me. It took six weeks with the left arm completely casted and the right splinted and another 4 weeks of therapy. Both arms still give me pain after longer rides and I cannot straighten the left one out completely. I was about 47 when this happened, lesson is that the older you get the longer it takes to heal up.

Eleven years ago in my mid-30's, I had a problem with sticky cleats, could not unclip in time, and crashed on my hardtail MTB, landing squarely on my left side. This broke my left femoral neck (hip fracture). I still have three pins in my left hip. My orthopedic surgeon, who also rides, did not want me to get back on the bike for about six months. This was to ensure full healing, since he said that if I crashed again on that same hip before healing, we would probably be looking at a total hip replacement. Suffice it to say that I followed his advice to the letter.

I smashed my hand to bits a few years back in a sprint. I still have screws holding my thumb in place. I was back on the bike in 4 months. I was on a trainer before that though. And I cross trained as much as possible.

Thought I was being hardcore (stupid) riding on the road 5 weeks after surgery? I aint got nothing on this woman!


http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Time_Trial_during_Pregnancy_P1693656/

I had the exact same injury (olecranon fracture) from a crash in a crit 2 years ago.

I was in a real big hurry to start riding and racing again.
I forgot what my doctor said, but it was something like no riding at all for at least 6 weeks.
I rolled the dice and it turned out fine.
I was back on the bike in 2 weeks (probably not a good idea). I was riding mostly 1 handed, and every little bump in the road was excruciating. It took another couple weeks before I could get out of the saddle for climbing or sprinting.
I was back racing 3 weeks after that (5 weeks after the crash), and it was still hurting a bit. I think it took about 10 weeks before the pain was nearly all gone and several months after that before it went away entirely.

Good luck with the recovery!:)

Scapula (a week before Masters Track Nats.:mad:). Somehow broke it w/o doing my collar bone too, although did have a shoulder separation. Was riding on the Road two weeks later, but could only ride on the tops for a month or so.