I’m looking for training advice with regard’s to starting over after injury. 3 weeks ago today, I suffered a hard crash resulting in severe bone and muscle bruising on my hip and leg. I’ve not been able to ride or walk normally for 3 weeks. I’m now back to riding very easy on the trainer for 15 minutes daily at less than 100 watts and walking normally. I’m still sore at times and my injured leg and hip definitely feels weaker. I’m hoping to be able to ride more next week as I continue to heal. I’ve been following the Masters Rolling Road race mid volume plan for most of the summer. My fitness was the best it’s been in years as a result and I’d like to claw back some of my fitness losses I’ve sufferedover the last few weeks. My challenge now is where to start once I’m able to ride again? Should I go back to a base plan and build up and write off the rest of the summer/fall or jump back in to the plan I was on and let AI adjust my efforts?
I definitely would not jump back in where you left off. I think that will just leave you disappointed because I don’t think it would go well at all and just lead to further setbacks. If I were in your situation (been in similar situations a few times), I would go back to base and do that until you can ride without any discomfort at all and then start to lightly incorporate intervals again.
Let me add to not only go slow. You need to pay attention to your movements. Your body will try to compensate for the injury. You don’t want those muscles to develop bad long term memories.
Hey @Mikebarrier! I am sorry to hear about the crash. I hope you’re feeling better now.
I am not sure if you’ve seen a doctor, but first things first, I’d get the OK from a doctor before resuming training. Once you get the OK, most of it is going to be by feel, slowly progressing back into it.
I would not start off with a plan, but rather hand-pick workouts or ones from TrainNow that you feel you can tackle with caution.
Thank you for the feedback and advice everyone. I’ll definitely be starting back slowly. Caro I did see a Dr and will be following up with a Sports Medicine Dr this week. Thanks again for the feedback!
In addition to what everyone else has said, if you aren’t already, I would do strength/ mobility work to strengthen all of the injured muscles / regain range of motion so you don’t develop long term issues
Thanks everyone for the advice. I’m still dealing with some soreness but back to riding easy and I’ve been doing lots of mobility and strength work with a focus on single leg works since my injured hip lost some strength and flexibility since rhe crash. One lesson learned… I don’t bounce back from crashes as easily at 61 as I did when I was 20. No more fast descending on the dirt for me.
I’m coming back from a brain/head injury due to fall 4 months ago.
Starting back after 1 month with 30 min z1 and bodyweight / mat work. Slowly built up adding 5-15 mins each week and increasing the intensity a notch until I was back doing Z2. Last week I rode 10 hours including 120km 2000m ride which signals I may actually be ready for some proper workouts.
My advice would be build back up very slowly and stay away from high intensity workouts until you feel good doing decent volume. It’s never a good time to sustain injuries but end of season is best.
Sometimes it’s good to reset, lose your season high watts and rebuild from a lower starting position. It can be motivational seeing things move in the right direction rather than clinging to all time best watts. Your form will come back, enjoy the rebuild.
I went through a very similar injury after getting ran over by a car. Never really experienced anything like it. It is still a problem hip now and mild falls onto it trigger it.
I really got into gym during my injury, and pushing unilateral leg work. The discomfort felt more ‘nice’ on the injured leg than the repetitive nature of cycling.
Cycling wise I built up from 10 mins until I got to an hour on the turbo, then I bumped my power down and started doing workouts. Eventually got back outside but missed the season.
I hope you’re feeling better now.