Sitting here (and for the past month) waiting for a Talus bone fracture to heal. Took about a month to actually get a correct diagnosis and then into an aircast. Haven’t been able to cycle for a long time now and I’m going mad.
Made me think of a good topic for discussion…what did you do to help you pass time during an injury. Just curious what people did to get through it all.
Me? I got much more into music and reading. What did you do to cope and any advise for others you’d give to help those on the mend keep their sanity?
I recommend people read Rebound by Carrie Cheadle. Its a mental skills / sports psychology book for dealing with all aspects of the injury cycle (diagnosis, acceptance, treatment, recovery, etc.)
I haven’t been injured since I purchased it, but still great takeaways and the next time I’m injured I will be reading it immediately.
I had about 5 months off from September, for the first couple of months the most I could do on bike was gentle spinning to keep the legs moving, barely putting force, so that got old quickly, I was essentially totally of everything for 2.5 months.
I tried to learn to draw, got a pen for my ipad and used drawing lesson apps, but what helped most was getting out for walks or whatever physically I could do, whether or not it had training value. Even walking slowly and painfully to town for coffee was like a special moment.
Reading is great, I worked through a biography of Winston Churchill a few years ago when I broke my leg. I also devoured a ton of cycling magazines, that was what really kick started the obsession (oops).
I also did as much as possible to just be around at events/happenings that were cycling related, I went to team events, coached people on skills, etc.
I wish I had done more physical activity than I did, i.e. I could’ve done situps or the like.
I did devote a bit of extra time to uni work and things like housework/meal prep- it was nice to feel a bit more ‘on top of things.’ I’m back riding and running now so I expect my life will be falling apart again in short order.
Sport is a big part of my social life so I discovered fairly quickly that making time to see both my non-cycling and cycling friends outside of training made a big difference to my mindset.
In April 2019 I had major stomach surgery to remove a cancer and had circa 5weeks of the bike. To pass the time I did a lot of walking and taking lots of photos of local wildlife.