My longest break from cycling over the past 15 years was when I had my ankle fused on Dec 1 2011. I was immobile for 3 weeks then on crutches for a week. We attended a New Year's Eve event and I was able to do a few slow dances with my wife with out using the crutches. The next day I set up a bike on a trainer in the basement with a platform pedal on the fused ankle side and did 20 minutes of easy spinning. From there on I was able to slowly increase the time and effort on the trainer and by early February I was doing semi-workouts and started to attend a few indoor trainer sessions. I did have a slight setback when I went ice fishing and it snowed several inches during my time on the lake and the walk back in while pulling my shanty and gear did leave a hurt on me for a few days. On Feb 26 I was able to do my birthday ride and rode my age plus a few miles on a cold rainy NE Ohio day. In early March I did a road race and bailed out after the 3rd of 4 laps in the race as I felt "mission completed". Around a week later I had a doctor appointment and at that time I was given the clearance to begin easy riding.
