I got back on the bike Wednesday. 6 days after surgery - the PT said I was good to get some easy trainer time in. The main problem I'm dealing with right now is a massively inflamed IT band that prohibits me from full extension/flexion. It's not like I or the PT speculate the IT band is inflamed - it's visually obvious that it's quite, quite swollen. So that sucks...lotsa rest, ice, compression and elevation to try to get the swelling down. I shelled out 140 bucks to get a home cryotherapy knee compression system to help with the swelling - that I'm STILL WAITING ON despite paying for express shipping
Wednesday: 15 minutes on the trainer 36w avg, 44 norm
Thursday: 20 minutes 83w avg, 99 norm
Friday: 30 minutes 119w avg, 128 norm
I'll keep slowly ramping up the time and intensity as the swelling goes away. At this rate, I don't expect to lose any substantial aerobic strength, as 6 days off isn't enough to detrain. Provided the swelling goes away like it did last time and my IT band plays nice I should be able to get in an hour of quality L2-L3 work in once or twice a day within 2 weeks at most. I've also lost 3lbs - which is probably a mixture of my intentional dieting and muscle atrophy in the operative leg.