djbowen1

long story short i was escorting the wheelchair racers at the NYC marathon last weekend and i got taken down. i now have 6 screws and a stainless steel support in my shoulder. i want to get a trainer to maintain some fitness. i only have rollers now so thats no good.

Has anyone trained with a broken collarbone and if so how hard did you find it? How long after breaking did you start training?

-david

cslone

Never personally done it, but one of our guys went down last year and was back on the bike within 4 weeks racing. He was stationary within 4 days. That was a collarbone AND punctured lung.

lunacycle

Sorry to hear about your injury. It's surprising how easily collarbones break.

I had a complete fracture in the middle-third section of my left clavicle back in late September (cyclocross accident -- over the bars, blah, blah, blah). However, I didn't have surgery -- just my arm in a sling. I was back on the trainer after a week. I had to rotate the bars up "bum-bike" style (for lack of a better term) to reduce the load on my arms, but I was able to wince away for 20 minutes at a time. I was told to take it very easy for the first two weeks, but I'm a stubborn idiot (please take note). Happily, six weeks later, I've got the go-ahead from my orthopedist to get back on the road.

For me, the guiding principle governing my activity level was, if it started to hurt, then I stopped doing it.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Treefox

You ought to be able to ride on a turbo without using arms at all - just sitting up.

bac

Hey David. I did seperate my shoulder (soft tissue injury) and used the trainer for a couple of weeks before I had the nerve to ride outside again. No problem at all with riding the trainer.

Good luck!

... Brad

CharlieWoo

Man, I don't even want to think what it would feel like to crash with a (recently) broken collar bone. Ouch.

Shayne

David,

Man that sucks, I know because I'm going through the same thing. I went down on 11-3-07 and had a plate and 6 screws installed on 11-8-07. So today, I'm one week post surgery. I went in to see the surgon yesterday. This was a little early as I was supposed to wait 10 days. I had developed a mild fever and we wanted me in to check on things. The fever has now broken and he said is quite common after surgery. He did go ahead and remove my stitches, plus took some xrays. The xrays looked outstanding, you can't even see the fracture lines after just 6 days. He was very pleased with the way everything is healing. He thinks full healing in 4-6 weeks. I have a recumbent stationary bike that I can get on now. In a few days I'll be on the trainer. My team has a winter training camp set up for mid Jan. and I'm looking good for that.

One of my riding/racing buddies is a rep. for the company that made the plate. So my buddy was actully in surgery with me. The Dr. is also a cyclist and he let my buddy snap a pic of the plate installed. I can post it if you want, but some might find it a little gross. Just let me know.

Take care of yourself. Just remember, as your suffering away on your trainer in the next month, I'll be in Ohio doing the same.

Shayne

cslone

Oh yeah Shayne we need to see that!

Man, I didn't know you went down. Hopefully without Hayley. I bet your wife is loving the racing now isn't she?

Chad's Colnago

I didn't break my collar bone like you described, I just fractured mine. I was able to train with little to no pain. I fractured it on a Saturday, and was riding that Monday. Considering the extent of your breakage I'd be surprised if the same applied for you.

DocRay

6 psi breaks a collar bone. We need CF wrapped collar bones.

Shayne

Went down in the Godzulla race when my rear AC Sprint 350 taco'd on a decent. I'm fealing much better today, should be on the trainer by this weekend or early next week. Here's a pic from Jamie's cell phone:

wfrogge

Last time I broke mine it took me a few days to get back on the trainer. Sat around on pain killers for the first few days but after that it was ok.