Road to Recovery

It's been about 10 weeks since I broke my collar bone. The first four weeks there was some pretty intense pain. It is hard to describe though. I have some friends who had to take some heavy duty pain killers when they broke their collar bone, some had surgery. I can say for me it was the most intense pain I have felt for that duration of time ever. I never took pain meds though other than some ibuprofen to help with swelling and some Aleve once or twice. Every week the pain has become less, every week my range of motion has gotten closer to normal.

At about 8 weeks I had more x-rays that showed new bone calcification, but definitely showed the injury to be very fragile still. I had been riding the trainer since about two weeks after my injury and by 8 weeks I was doing sustained efforts on the trainer. Overall fitness is okay, endurance has definitely dropped though.

This past weeks I've ridden outside several times, Saturday getting in over two hours with a reasonable amount of climbing. I had good sustained efforts, a bit off from before my injury, but I was pleased. I definitely have learned how to spread my energy and effort out by dialing back when I need to so I can sustain a higher effort for a longer periods of time.

In general training and fitness is coming along. I think I trained too hard to early last year, mostly my fault. This year I think I have a calmer and more sensible approach to racing, I kind of have to. Full calcification of my injury is expected to take four to six months. After my 3 month evaluation I'll know if I'm ready get on the mountain bike on easy trails, then by mid March I hope to be over the hump and ready to throttle myself.

This week will be another challenge with work taking over all aspects of life and training. Once this week is done I hope the weather gives me a chance to properly stretch my legs after sitting in a chair all week!