I broke my collarbone while training for Peaks Challenge!
Hannah joined us to share wisdom about injury recovery as I’m recovering from surgery and way to eager to rush back into things, and we had some great takeaways from that convo.
Hannah also had some big sponsor changes including a move to Scott Bikes, so we went into how she goes about setting up a new bike while trying to maintain her training.
Finally, we got into questions about why modern bikes are so much heavier, and how to approach nutrition for junior athletes.
Enjoy!
// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Welcome!
(00:00:19) Coach Jonathan’s collarbone surgery
(00:07:16) How to know when to return to competition
(00:14:43) Nutrition tips to help injury recovery
(00:36:29) Hannah Otto’s big new sponsors
(00:40:37) How to set up a new bike
(00:46:04) Privateer vs. Factory Teams
(00:52:12) Training and Racing Strategies
(00:57:04) Why are new bikes so heavy?
(01:06:50 Nutrition for Junior Athletes
I’ve torn ligaments in both knees. One was a very straight forward ACL reconstruction, the recovery was relatively quick and easy. The 2nd one had a ton more damage, tore ACL & MCL and basically shredded my meniscus. Being my second major knee injury, I started PTing the injury myself at home in the weeks leading up to surgery and knew exactly what I needed to do after surgery to beat muscle atraphoy amd maximize recovery. However, the scale of the 2nd injury ended up being so much more to get through. The timeline was slower, there’s was way more pain, and it was in general a much harder mental process. It was crazy how different the recovery was for “the same” injury. That injury derailed my entire 2024.
Seeing that break, I’m amazed Johnathan is even considering being in a race so soon. Defintely skip the race, hit the PT hard, and come back when you’re ready.
Good you had surgery. I broke mine in 2016 and Dr. Altman at ROC fixee me up. I was riding my trainer with a Bosu ball on my bars with some clip on aero bars to keep it in place within 2 weeks. Was able to do endurance and tempo work until I could comfortably hold the bars.
I also broke my collarbone last June and needed surgery, which included a plate and eight screws. As an older athlete (54), I’m a firm believer in consuming high amounts of protein and collagen to support training and recovery.
After the accident, I increased my protein intake from 1.5 to 2 grams per pound of lean body weight. I also boosted my collagen intake to about 30 grams, using a product that contains collagen types I, II, and III. I was back on the trainer just four days after surgery and started going outside for walks and hikes—basically, anything I could do to increase blood flow to help with healing.
At my second doctor visit at the end of July, I was cleared to ride outdoors and return to weightlifting. My doctor noted that I was healing at the rate of someone half my age and even removed the need for physical therapy. Now, I’m training for my second Leadville, aiming to get closer to that bigger buckle—thanks to TR!
Hope you heal up fast. I broke my collarbone 41 days before the 200km Rift last year. Told my surgeon what I was planning to do (I’m 62) so he did a gravel build on my collarbone. Shook it with both hands before he closed me up…
So sorry to hear about your collarbone. I had the a very similar accident on the MTB this year and broke mine in 3 places as well. My exact words was it happened so fast that my hands never left the bars and my shoulder and head hit the ground with the bike coming over top of me.
It hurt very badly up to when I had surgery. Once they plate everything back together it will start to feel better. Sucks that you have to wait so long for surgery, oh now I see you actually already had surgery.
I broke mine in a gravel race back in October ‘23 (age 36 at the time). The collar bone break wasn’t nearly as bad as yours (didn’t need surgery) but I also cracked three ribs and fractured my scapula.
I was back in the trainer in a week or so, but not being able to put much pressure on my arm made longer intervals difficult.
Like Nate said, your training is now healing-focused. After that it’ll be PT. It took a few weeks for me to accept this, but there will be other events in the future to do and train for, and I needed to let my FTP, weight, and some fitness go a bit.
I wasn’t cleared for outdoor rides until the Spring, but type 1 diabetes slows bone healing, so your mileage may vary on that point. However, once I was back on the bike, I had to make sure my brain “had the receipts” that we could ride safely (thanks to Amber on an old podcast episode for that one).
In the end, I was able to do a century fundraising ride in July ‘24 without issue or much fear of crashing and am now doing duathlon training. You’ll come back better, faster, and stronger in the long run, too.
I’m sorry to hear of your accident, best of luck with recovery.
I broke both my collarbones about 10 years ago ( I think you read my question out on episode 40ish).
I would highly recommend following the advice of your physio.
I remember losing a lot of flexibility really quickly, and it took a long time to get back to normality, like being able to straighten my arm after so long in slings.
I recall drinking lots of milk for the protein. Maybe some extra calcium for the bones. Not sure I can prove it worked but it made me feel better that I was at least giving my body the resources it might require.
I also recall losing grip strength so I pretty quickly started using a guitar player finger strengthener so that each individual finger was tested. Even the twisting action of unlocking a door and twisting the handle became difficult for a while.
I broke my collarbone today and while the er folks were cleaning me up, they asked if I wanted anything. I said “put on the latest TR podcast ep with Hannah”
Everyone got a good laugh that this was my choice of listening content to distract me from folks cleaning road rash.
Sorry to hear about the injury @Jonathan and I know you’ll recover and get back to it once you’ve healed up.
Please check out “The Injured Athletes” podcast. It’s an excellent resource for the mental and psychological side of injuries as well as the physical recovery.
I was hit by an SUV back in 2006 and it shattered my lower right leg. I had multiple surgeries, a bone graft, etc. The hardest part of the recovery wasn’t the pain (although that sucked), it was my inability to help my wife around the house and help with my son, who was only two at the time. I started reading to him every night as I couldn’t do much else, and that became a ritual of ours every night until he grew out of it.
Anyway, the mental recovery and emotional rollercoaster can be harder than the physical stuff.
Hang in there, reach out to friends and family when you need help and best of luck with your recovery!
I broke my left collarbone when I was about 5 (~1994) riding my bike. I had to wear the straps that pulled my shoulders back until it healed.
I broke it again in a dirt bike crash in May 2020. I was on COVID furlough for five weeks, came back to work for two weeks, then had the crash and had to be out for six weeks. Thank God for a good company that coordinated well with me! Ironically, it’s the only bone I’ve knowingly broken, and I’ve broken it twice. They didn’t do surgery, but opted to let it heal on its own. It seemed like it felt more lined up when lying down, so I tried to stayed lied down as much as I could through that time. As I stayed upright, I could feel a lump there. It ended up with a bit of a lump, but no lasting problems that I can tell, thankfully. I wear a USWE mountain biking and often carry a 35# ruck sack with no issues.
That was before I had a trainer, but it was all I could do to get out for a walk around the neighborhood. The collarbone was obviously uncomfortable, but I guess I also injured my ribs (undiagnosed) because the pain there was pretty brutal!
