bbeasley

Hey guys,

If you don't mind sharing, how long were you off your bike? How long have you been riding post recovery? Have you regained your pre injury fitness, if yes how long did it take? How old are you?

Shoulder injury has me on I.R. and I'm trying to figure out my drop dead date for returning to cycling and being able to make the fall centuries.

Thanks!

TrojanHorse

I had surgery on May 7th and was off the bike for exactly two months (in a cast or boot for almost all of it) so my fitness was terrible when I hopped back on. In the interest of not over doing it and a variety of work commitments (July is rough every year) I only rode about 133 miles in July, of which 50 were done on one ride to see where I was... I've been on vacation in Hawaii from 8/1 till 8/12 so I haven't ridden a foot in August yet. I hope to rectify that tonight with at least a short ride because... (drum roll) I have a century on Saturday. it's pretty flat, only 4200 feet, and I don't intend to set any land speed records but hopefully I survive. I have a short cut mapped out if I'm really struggling that will cut about 25 miles off the thing.

I don't really experience any pain or discomfort from cycling though (aside from my posterior), so it's good for me to get back on the bike. It sounds like your issue may end up being different. I actually have recurring shoulder pain (it wanders from shoulder to shoulder) that almost had me having surgery last fall, but PT seems to have fixed it up, at least for a while. That nagging shoulder is actually more of a problem for me right now than my ankle, ugh.

Anyway, I've read that you should allow 2 months of recovery for every month you're off the bike - I'm treating it like a winter off and I'll just pile up some 500 base miles or so before worrying about average speeds and what not. I have a power meter so it's painfully obvious that my output is down about 30% from where it was. No bueno!

jsigone

BB, how long have you been off your bike? Since it's a shoulder can you ride the trainer or gym bike? Everyone heals different and not everyone listens to the doctors ie ME.

TH, you were supposed to ride up that 10k ft hill while ur on the islands, who needs to relax on the beach anyways when there is a volcano to destroy

bbeasley

I'm starting my 5th week off the bike.

Yeah, I'm not much on Drs even though I've got a great one. I'm using a recumbent exercise bike but I can't get my heart rate up on it like I can on my roadie. I also ran 10 miles a week but stopped as even that was slowing down the healing. I have managed to maintain my weight at sub 200 while off the bike.

If it's ~2 months for each month off then I'm screwed. I just need to be patient and wait for total healing, then train for next year. So frustrating as I totally did this to myself and I'm a RN by education. Geez.......

TrojanHorse

Congrats! I was... um, not as successful.

I think the 2 months per month rule of thumb is probably overly dramatic and personally, my fitness seems to drop like a rock when I stop for even 2 weeks but everybody is different.

Maybe this is an excuse for you to get one of those racing recumbents, particularly since it's pretty flat by you. Take the weight off the shoulder for a while but still get some riding in. Riding is mentally therapeutic for me, I like being alone with my thoughts for 3 or 4 hours on Saturday mornings.

jsigone

I rolled my ankle on june 12, stage 2 sprain. Doc said to stay on crutches for a week, don't ride for 3, should be 95% healed by wk6. I was on my bike on June 18th with the ankle brace. Did about 2 wks of short sub 20mile rides then went NUTS in July. I had to ditch the ankle brace about mid july as it was effecting my speed/cornering in the twisty. Late July I started running again, finished july with over 500 miles. Now doing 3 runs a wk, ranging from 3-6 miles. And now in the best shape I've been in all yr plus being down 10lbs from injury date. If you told me this 2 months ago when I was gimping around, I'd say your were full of BS.

When you get the OK from the body to ride, commit to it and the bounce back should be shorter. Just set up a solid base first before trying to go faster. Those long slower rides suck after a while but the endurance kick is much needed. Get a fluid trainer at home if you don't have one and use some inner tubes to rig up a system where it doesn't put pressure on the shoulders. check out this dude's rig https://cyclingtips.com.au/2010/11/th...en-collarbone/

IBOHUNT

Still nursing that are ye?

My accident where "Built Ford tough" is false advertising happened on June 8th. I managed to ONLY get a lot of road rash and a separated shoulder (AC joint). which still bothers me if I try to raise my hand above my head.

I was off the bike for 46 days.

I got back on the bike July 25th and made it a entire 9.7 miles in 36 minutes. The elevation gain was only 636' so it wasn't like I was doing any climbing. That REALLY REALLY sucked. I had a total of 171 miles on the bike in July - most of it on flat (47'/mi gain) roads with WIDE shoulders.

During that time off the bike I gained 12 lbs during the first week or so while I was as dormant as a bear in mid Jan. After I was able to get around without a lot of pain I started walking; A LOT(!), doing lower body exercises and stretching. My diet consisted of little more than 1 chicken breast, 4-6 pieces of fruit, some melba toast crackers and all the salad and other greens I could cram down along with a gallon of water per day.

I really began biking hard (Vo2Max workouts, fast pedal, Steady State at 90% and longish Tempo rides (80%) of 15-20 min) after that wake up call of the 25th and found, after a 21 min TT effort on August 6th, that I had lost about 17 watts off of my best 20 min average so I was down about 6% or so. The only thing that I am sure that helped me lose only that much was the walking, which turned into jogging, the gym, stretching and the diet I was on as I was down 17 lbs off of my low that I had at the end of May. A 29lb loss after the 12 lb post crash gain.

Totals for this month are 33 miles running and 422 miles on the bike.

Do I feel as if I am back to where I was before the crash 21 days after getting back on the bike?

Nope, not till I regain the wattage AND(!) endurance I had lost. Sure, I've lost weight so my W/Kg is about the same however it's my perception that my endurance is far from being where it needs to be. It took me 4 hrs to ride 72 miles on Saturday at a high endurance HR and it was ONLY(!) 62'/mile gain. Day-em; I did Mountains of Misery at not much higher HR average and it was 100'/mi.

Do I feel confident that if I signed up to do a century or double metric that I would make it?

Absolutely, they are rides and not races. Go fast enough to make it to the rest stops before they close and you are golden or find some other places for water and food.

Am I confident I can show up to a group ride and be able to hang with them?

After last night when I showed up to a ride and group I had never seen and asked at the sign up table where there were a few people hanging around...

"So I got this bike and shoes. The shoes have some things on the bottoms and the pedals look funny, not like what I had as a kid. Also, the bike looks like it has gears but all I can find is brake levers. Is there anybody here that could help me figure this stuff out?"

That got a quizzical look and a 'Um, I'm not sure.'

I then asked about how they knew where to put people on the ride and she said they line up by groups with "A" being the fastest. I asked where the A group started. That got a 'good luck with that!' comment so I walked away to go change.

That A group started with 8 folks who had obviously ridden together before. At mile 7 after the first turn and 600' of gain which we averaged 18 mph there were 3 of us left. During the next small 6% climb I asked one of the guys "How does this work? People know where to turn because we lost them other folks." Again, a quizzical look and a terse comment as he was panting like a 15 year old in a Gentlemen's club.

At the end of the ride there were two of us that pulled into the parking lot. The lady that I had asked the questions at the sign up table made it back and came over to me and asked if I had even ridden since I was back in my street clothes. I answered:

"Yeah, took us 1 hr 22 to go that 26 miles. Good fun but we lost a few along the way."

I'm ancient at 54 in November.

So what kind of advice can I give you?

Try not to gain weight
Lower body workouts
Cardio and then more cardio.

IBOHUNT

DAGGUM! That is exactly what I needed with my shoulder. I couldn't do a trainer, which suck to start with, but I would had if I could have been able to.

jsigone

trainers sucks, but if you can spin the cranks after a couple weeks of getting hurt. Its a good option for a faster recovery.

Last summer my buddy wrecked himself on a MTB ride. We rigged up a pulley system using the following parts to the trusses in his garage next to his work bench. The pulley over the bike location, one side was tied to the belt for his waist. other side was series of hops we knotted up for adjustment. Bungie cord through his spokes on the front wheel would hook on to the loops. Rope wasn't too bad in his face since he couldn't lean over much anyways. Off to the side we strung up 29er inner tubes from the trusses to support his gimped arm. The system allowed him to setup next to his work bench by him self w/ a broken collar bone. He was back on the roadie in about over a month w/o much fitness lost. It did take a while for him to get on the mtb though.

https://www.harborfreight.com/bicycle-lift-95803.html

https://www.harborfreight.com/lumbar-...ium-94103.html

eja_ bottecchia

What kind of shoulder injury did you sustain?

I fell on my left shoulder back in March and it has been hrting ever since.

I did the Tour de Cure with PJ, Beachgrad and TH, and even though the shoulder was in pain (especially on the hills) I still managed.

The year before I broke a rib (I am clumsy I guess) and I still managed to ride. It only hurt when I laughed, cried and, you guessed, while climbing.

Your recovery time depends on your own situation, the degree and nature of your injury and what the doctor is telling you/doing to you.

I don't think there is a magical time table. As they say, YMMV.

Good luck on your recovery.

IBOHUNT

Bookmarked for next time which I hope never comes. This injury has been the most painful I've ever had and that includes broken ribs twice, compound tib/fib, left navicular and 4 metatarsals, some of them phalanges in both hands, right ulnar and radius. and some others. MX and soccer wasn't good for me. 48 years of snow skiing and nothing. Go figure.

bbeasley

The dumbest type there is: I lowered my bars one too many times. When my shoulders started hurting, I blamed it on the 75 pushups (in a row) I'd been doing. Stopped the pushups and spent a couple of months trying to ride through the discomfort. When I could no longer take off a T shirt I faced reality.

jsigone

I'd take broken bones any day over internal bleeding. Lacerated my spleen from my handlebar digging into my side when I crashed doing this double jump. Week in ICU, week on the regular floor. Lucky it healed on its own so they didn't have to remove it. Having to drink that purple die everyday for a CAT scan was nasty. When I met my wife I warned her on our 1st date I'm accident prone every summer and she might get a call from the ER...that first summer w/ her was my spleen injury BMX bikes, rollerblades, skateparks, hand rails...yah I was that guy.

I've upgraded going from the ER to Urgent Care when I need stitches from my failed MTB vs gravity battles and/or CT checks when I break a helmet

IBOHUNT

Have you had an MRI or any scans to see what's busted/tore up?

marquhar

For my Fx hip, I was off bike for 31 days. I have 3 more months until the cloud of necrosis is lifted off.

I do best when I do the exercises for my hip flexors and glutes every few days. I always ice my hip before most showers. Also I ice
both achilles tendons, since its easy to get tendinitis there when another part of your body is injured.

To defeat necrosis, capillary growth must be at its best so I take these pills below