settings on zwift for recovering from ankle surgery
 

I'm having ankle surgery and for my early recovery I can ride a trainer at low intensity. I'm thinking about losing a lot of height and weight in my settings so I can still do some distance. Do I want to change the trainer difficulty to zero percent?

Definitely change the difficulty setting to 0. This is probably all you'll have to do but if not keep dropping the weight until the resistance is to your liking. Another option is to do workouts with your FTP lowered to some very low number and make sure you are on erg mode.

keep it honest and ride feugo flats. that ride is perfect for slow rolling. and don't push it or you'll be longer just riding easy.

I got my first trainer (a "dumb" trainer) after I had ankle surgery. This was a kurt kinetic, and the resistance was in the fly-wheel. I had to use a mountain bike in its lowest gears at first, and made slow progress by shifting upward a little bit each week. However, pain was the main impediment, and it correlated with resistance.

I had a bimalleolar fracture with internal fixations, and started this about 4 weeks after the surgery, when I was out of the cast. If you are fortunate enough not to have a cast, start as soon as possible.

Regaining full range of motion is the most important thing, and was the hardest for me, as I was too conservative and protective of the fracture. Cranking up the intensity can come later, but will be a lot easier if you have regained full range of motion.

It took me about 2 years before I could stand up on the pedals to hammer up a hill, and I still can't do it well.

I'm assuming you have a smart trainer. I only just got one a few weeks ago and haven't really figured out how they work, but I assume you can pre-set the resistance. Set it to whatever you can get away with, without having significant pain, to get a cadence of 60 to 80 rpm. This isn't the time to mash.

Good luck with the healing process. My surgeon gleefully informed me that most of my problems were with the soft tissue between my ears.

Another good option is to make a custom workout where the entire ride is simply all zone 1 (grey). Set your FTP as low as you want your resistance to be and set the workout on erg. This is probably the best option as you can ride any route and never will the resistance exceed what you determined was your limit.

Just to second what has been said above, either stick yourself on Fuego Flats and tap away in a super easy gear for as long as you need/want, or create your own ZWO that's all Zone 1 and then ride whatever course you want in ERG mode.

Focus on saddle time. Distance, at the end of the day, is technically irrelevant. 🙂

Thanks for the input, I guess I'll have to do some exploratory rides and see what it's like to set up a workout. I don't think I'll be getting any KOMs no matter what I do.
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Reading the info they sent me it seems like I'll be in a cast for 2 weeks. What about range of motion keeps you from standing to climb hills? That's a big part of my riding style. I guess I'm more worried about swimming, since you have to extend your foot.

Wait, you're in a cast and you think you'll be standing to hill climb? I could almost be tempted too, bike addiction and all that.

I probably wasn't very clear, but a cast or anything that immobilizes a joint, along with soft-tissue damage and in my case a fracture, can reduce the range of motion long after the cast has been removed and the swelling has gone down. My main goal in physical therapy was to get back as close as possible to the before-accident range of motion.

For standing while climbing, I would feel it most in the Achilles tendon and the soft tissue in the ankle joint (rather than the actual site of the fracture). There was one point in physical therapy where they threatened to kick me out because I was standing up on one of their indoor bikes trying to power through this, and I guess my screams of agony were too much for the other inmates.

Apparently if I had the same injury in Europe, they would have done the internal fixation (metal plate and screws) and skipped the cast and sent me directly to physical therapy. I think in retrospect that would have been better. Glad to hear you are only in it for two weeks. I felt like I was recovering from the after effects of the cast more than the injury and surgery itself.

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The other thing I wish I had done earlier was to buy a wobble board.

eg: https://a.co/bsWM6Wj

Thanks. My SiL the physical therapist said I should get a wobble board for the problem I have now, which results in a wobbly ankle. I hadn't thought about it for after the surgery.

The thing they sent me about what to expect is like a horror story. Since I could just live with pain that's not too bad as long as I don't do anything that's too strenuous, it really made me wonder if I was doing the right thing. The surgeon told me it wouldn't get worse if I left it. But it's pretty limiting, can't go walking for too much time, can't swim too long, can't run, etc. It gets a little sore on the bike, but not too bad.

I ordered myself a custom bike as a recovery incentive.

That I don't regret at all (apart from not doing it sooner).

So I am guessing from the context you are having elective surgery to address a chronic issue.

If that is correct, one other suggestion I have is to learn how to use crutches now. It sounds stupid, but it really is kind of a skill that took me awhile to acquire, especially going up and down stairs. Also, if you can use only one crutch, it helps. They also had me rent this knee scooter thing. I thought "oh, cool, it is kind of like a bike." Yeah, in the sense it has (tiny) wheels and a hand brake. I went over the bars on the thing when I hit a pebble. The safest thing to use is a walker, but it feels like you are in an elder care unit.

Yeah, this was sort of my thought. Do a custom workout in ERG mode with the power set crazy low. That way you can't be tempted to push yourself chasing someone (always seems to happen to me when I'm trying to take it easy).

This makes a lot of sense, I'll have to do that. I was even thinking about just running the wahoo utility, setting the resistance and watching a movie.

Yes, it's elective. Learning to use crutches is on my list, but the date of the surgery is approaching quickly somehow.
I have hear of people having trouble with the knee scooter. My wife never crashed on hers, and she is accident prone, so I figured I might be able to use it. OTOH, one of her colleagues had to buy one with bigger wheels because she crashed the one she rented

I got good news about my ankle, it's quite possible I won't have to have a cast because the mri showed the damage was less severe than they thought. We'll see though, I'm prepared for the worst.

At risk of this being seen as another necropost bump, how's the recovery going? I hope well.

I couldn't do anything until today, they took my splint off and I got a boot. I'm going to go try to ride tomorrow. I was too busy to get flat pedals on the bike before the surgery, and it wasn't particularly realistic to get to the bike in the last 2 weeks. The PA I saw today said he didn't think I could do it with a boot on, challenge accepted :) I'm not sure how I'm going to balance the thickness of the walking boot, so knee problems are a distinct possibility. I guess I can do the old "strap a 2x4 to the pedals" trick. Hopefully my seatpost isn't stuck.

I don't think I have been incapacitated long enough to really lose much strength, although I'm sure my fitness is awful. I shouldn't work on flexibility until the wound heals, which will probably be in another week. The PA predicted that the surgeon will tell me I won't need the boot when I go see him in mid-December. That would be nice.

On edit: I rode today for about 10 minutes. It wasn't bad. I'm not sure how much longer I could have ridden. I didn't raise my saddle so the top of the boot was hitting the back of my knee. I'll fix that tomorrow. I ordered a shoe balancer, so that should help things

On edit: I didn't really want to bump this. I got out of the walking boot and I am riding and this whole thing seems to have been no big deal. So my experience probably won't help anyone in the future. I don't have anywhere near full range of motion, but I don't really need it to ride. My main problem on the trainer remains my butt. I haven't gotten up to an hour of riding at a time yet, but I could have if I wanted.