hack

Simple really, ride off the front, ride off the back, do TTs, or Tris.

But really...I suppose I should/could have elaborated on my thoughts. Again, these are just my thoughts (from my limited racing experience) and if I can learn all the better. As I said, be aware of your surroundings (awareness fluctuates based on experience), adjust accordingly. While I said escape plan, I think that suggests limiting yourself to short sightedness and doesn't indicate an attempt to plan to avoid putting yourself in a bad spot. As you indicated above, awareness and preventative measures are pretty key. Knowing the guys around you are nervous nellies and it may be time to get out of there was what I viewed as an escape plan in addition to "crap, a pileup three wheels up how do I avoid it?".


To get back a bit on point. When I did get hurt (separated shoulder), life sucked! Sleep was miserable, eating was miserable, showering was miserable, you name it. Luckily, healing was quick and I found the biggest hurdle was the mental aspect of putting myself back into a tight spot in a group again. I'd guess it took a few weeks and a few races to really start feeling comfortable.

shovelhd

Walking a downtown crit course to examine the surface and look for pinch points and escape routes is time well spent in my opinion. It's rare when I've had to use one but that's not the point.

Wylde06

Ygduf

If we're looking for recovery timelines, mine were both very similar. Surgery, 2-3 days of simmering in self pity, then riding the trainer for a week with 1 arm, slowly lowering injured arm until I could comfortably rest it on the bars. Once I felt I could safely brake/ride on flat smooth roads I was outside. Surgery to outside was 9 days for clavicle one, 10 days for clavicle 2.

spectastic

I learned not to go about a cross course descent without having at least some cross experience, because you can go over the handlebars and break your collarbone - an experience that I can relate to earlier in the year during my first rouge Roubaix road race, which was pretty much a cross race, where I crashed pretty hard but luckily didn't break anything other than my rd hanger. Any why is that just because a lot of these crashes occur without your control, going elbow to elbow at 30 mph, that it would insinuate that people can't learn more from this thread than paths to recovery? crashes happen for various reasons. And just because there's an A&S section somewhere else doesn't mean the two needs to be mutually exclusive.

and I can't say I'm the one to derail this thread. people on this forum don't give me nearly enough credit for that to be the case.

tetonrider

wow...this latest round of surgery has really sapped my energy quite a bit. i sometimes feel like an 80-year old man, especially when i have the urge to take a nap about 30 minutes after waking up!

the leg that was operated on is just tired and sore, muscularly, but everything is firing. i have been able to ski (downhill) every day for the past 6 days, and i've hopped on the trainer.

the day after surgery i managed 70w for 30'. today -- still laughable -- i did an hour of riding where i struggled to maintain 150w as base (fading by the end) with a bunch of 1' intervals at 250w. my HR was in the 180s....it was really taxing for me.

a cool thing about recovery is that one can see improvements faster than normal. i try to focus on that ... instead of crying over the weak #s . if i repeat that session next week i'll be curious to see the power (higher) and HR (lower).

got my (40) staples out today. the doc said I'm ok to start riding the trainer in a few weeks (at which point i told him i rode it the day after surgery....no one told me any restrictions!). we got into a discussion about how movement can delay some muscular regeneration (quad and glute were sliced for me) but can reduce the build-up of scar tissue....somewhat of a trade-off from a recovery perspective.

one foot in front of the other for me...

tetonrider

naps are a big part of my life right now...

revchuck 

You say that like it's a bad thing.

tetonrider

well, i got back to work on the bike 10 days after surgery and did a threshold test a couple days later.

one of the disheartening moments of any recovery process is that moment where i had to set a new threshold in my software -- dropping it by 100 watts never feels great, but bad news doesn't get better with time.

the really good news about recoveries is that positive things can happen quickly, too. after making that assessment i settled back to the unglamorous work of rehab. i did a 1 hour workout that left me completely spent and pretty much confirmed my (low) threshold.

i repeated the same threshold test (a protocol i've been using for about 5 years, one that is very effective in situations where one doesn't even have a ballpark for their threshold, e.g., coming back from an injury or long hiatus),and found i could sustain about 20w more than the prior week. i don't really sweat what the number is--recoveries go quite a bit by feel.

i'm going to repeat another threshold test in the next day or so, and weekly or every other week as i make my way back.

2 weeks ago, my HR hit 192 (at age 41 that is not something i see unless in an all-out sprint) just holding what used to be endurance pace for just 3 minutes. last week the same efforts were about 7bpm lower for every power level.

will be interesting to see what happens this week.

revchuck 

Glad things are on the upswing, TR!

shovelhd

It's always good to be headed in the right direction. I'm not at that point yet, but that's why we work so hard. Good luck, man.

benajah

In 2005 I got my right leg blown off in Afghanistan while serving with the 173rd Airborne, the only unit to award two medals of honor for Afghanistan. Other injuries too. Waist down was basically shattered, everything but femurs was broken from the belt line down..back badly damaged. 14 months in the hospital.
Still racing, still riding, HTFU.

spdntrxi

F'n A.. thank you for your service !

tetonrider

wow.

do you have a prosthesis?

you might find it interesting to read the writings of alex simmons. alex is a talented racer who lost his leg in a bizarre accident (training ride, i believe), was basically off the bike for a year, gained 20 kilos, lost most or all of it (i think), and battled back to put out some numbers that were higher than he ever did before his injury.

he's incredibly knowledgeable and incredible nice.

some interesting reading here on his site.

tetonrider

well, i fired myself up to do another ramp, my 3rd in 3.5 weeks post-op. i find it's not trivial to fire oneself up to ride to failure, but i'm doing it weekly as a bit of an experiment. might slow it down when gains are harder to come by.

managed to make it through another level this week, so +40W vs. 2 weeks ago.

if only progress like this continued indefinitely!