Week 1 of Recovery: Finding the Positives

No one likes being injured, that much is clear. For me, major injuries take a toll beyond the traditional physical pain. With me already being prone to short and long term depression, a major injury like this greatly affects my mood and general outlook. I get predisposed with how I feel and what I can’t do, like ride my damn bike. Being a rib injury, this has also made sleeping more difficult because I’m rarely comfortable and my sleep suffers because of it. So one can imagine what a fowl mood I was in for parts of the last week. As I healed up and started to move with more ease my mood started to lift and I was able to take a clearer look at everything. Obviously I wish I’d never crashed, but there are some hidden positives; primarily with the stack up of some other ailments over the last few months.

  • Continued frustration with sciatica in my right leg

  • Numbness in two fingers on my left hand

  • Numbness in my big toe on my left foot

  • Middle/upper back pain

  • Saddle sore flare up over the last month

Taking a break from the bike will hopefully heal some of these while others need rest and equipment modifications. I could dedicate an entire blog to equipment thoughts…because I’m neurotic like that…so I’ll spare you for the time being. The numbness on my left hand is a new issue seemingly related to the new bike, so its currently in the shop getting a Bontrager DropLock Remote and ESI Fit XC Grips installed. I typically run the ESI Fit XC grips on my bike and rarely have hand numbness problems with them. I’ve ordered a new saddle for the bike to counter act the discomfort and replace the saddle broken in the crash. Since it’ll be awhile before I’m back on the mountain bike any report on that will have to wait. Over the next few weeks I’m going to look into better insoles for my shoes. The rest of my issues hopefully just need rest and, when I regain movement, stretching and exercise.

How am I feeling now? The first couple days were pretty freaking terrible. It hurt to basically do anything more strenuous then sit on the couch and drink whisky. By Wednesday I was able to move fairly freely without major pain and could start to do some daily tasks without wincing. Thursday morning was my first day back on the bike…or trainer to be specific. Nothing major; just 30 minutes of low effort spinning in Zwift. I could feel my ribs on almost every pedal stroke, but it was stiffness not pain for the most part. I resigned myself to take Friday off and try a bigger trainer ride Saturday morning. I had committed to getting on the trainer for an hour and a half. My intentions were to keep things low effort, no major climbs and spin at 90 rpm in Zone 2. That…well lets just say that didn’t happen.

When I climbed on the bike I felt pretty OK. Obviously I could feel stiffness in my ribs, but it wasn’t really pain. I got started slowly on the “flat” terrain and settled in with a group of 3 others that went off the same time I did. As we got into Titan’s Grove and started to pedal through the rollers and up the KOM climb two of them dropped off, leaving me and one other guy. Now I’m not sure who started the pissing contest first, probably me, but we soon found ourselves consistently ramping up the pace bit by bit until we were full on at race pace. He started to gap me when we made the turn for The Jungle 12 miles in. I let him have the descent down to the bottom, feeling confident that I could lull him into a false sense of security for the climb out. I was right; I caught up right as the gravel of the Jungle Loop ended and we head back towards the main section of Watopia, passing him on the turn out. (Jordan gave me a stange look when I yelled “Remember me!”) He hung on for quite a while, but then I started gapping him more and more. Soon the gap was over a minute and by the time I hit the Desert he was all but off screen. Now of course there’s the legitimate chance that this “race” was all in my head and that he was unaware of what was going on…but motivation comes in all forms including imaginary.

So how did I feel after riding 30 miles on broken ribs and spending most of the ride in Zone 4? Not too shabby actually. I still struggle to lift things above chest level, but at least I know I can manage sustained effort. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do interval style workouts or feel secure enough in my movements to venture back outside, but I’ll take this as a win.

So some ailments are getting a chance to potentially heal and I can ride the trainer. I’m happy with that. Maybe next weekend I can venture outside even if its just to the Poop Loop.