After a few operations and a total hip replacement, I’m kinda still in love with cycling. I’ve used TR and have full confidence in its results. BUT, cycling isn’t fun when it’s HARD. EVERY workout kicks my ass. So discouraging. It’s messing with my mental knowing I can’t even complete a Thursday endurance ride without 3+ breaks. I know, I just need to ride. Easier said.
I had a hip replacement in September 2023 and that was the excuse to get an indoor trainer setup for rehab. For the first month or so I just sat on a sit up bike in the gym and pedalled with hardly any resistance. After 6 weeks or so I used Zwift a lot back home at the time and that saw me through the first winter. Since then I’ve ridden considerably longer rides than I ever used to, and really got into gravel riding in the UK. Funnily enough when I started with TrainerRoad, it already had some ftp figures for me from 2013 which were higher than my present values, but back then I only had a wheel on fluid trainer so don’t think the figures were that accurate.
You just have to enjoy the process, it’ll come back but just go steady. My next hurdle is an upcoming shoulder surgery for rotator cuff and tendon repairs. Ive no idea really how long I’ll be off outdoors riding but I’m planning on a a lot of short zone 2 rides if I can get in the trainer safely.
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How are you using TR and what are you using for FTP? Workouts are scaled to FTP so if it’s artificially high, they’ll be very tough. Failing some and reporting moderate workouts as hard in the post workout survey should start getting them to scale back. Doing an FTP test would be another way to get things scaled more properly.
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Interested in hearing a little more about your experience, having just had (emergency!) hip replacement surgery following an accident! I’ve read some older threads/posts here on this subject, but I’m all ears to learn from others’ journeys back…
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Sure, I had a posterior replacement due to osteoarthritis. Both hips are bone on bone but the left one isn’t giving any discomfort, whereas the right was causing quite a limp when walking. As I explained above, I was in a sit up trainer wishing several weeks but with minimal resistance, just spinning. I bought myself a Wattbike, it was winter in the UK and it seemed like a treat to help with rehab. I didn’t use TrainerRoad back then, just Zwift but it was fun and engaging.
I did my first 100 miler 6 months after surgery, and a 200km shortly after. Basically I was riding further and faster than I had in years. I’m 67 (surgery at 65), and my background was rock climbing rather than biking although I used to do a lot of MTb back in the 90s. I had several shoulder issues around this time (ruptured biceps tendon) and rotator cuff tears so cycling has been a good replacement for me, especially getting the gravel bike over the moors. This year I’m using TR to boost ftp but I’m now on the waiting list for imminent shoulder surgery so that may well wipe out the Uk summer for me. But hip wise, it’s great, wish I’d had it done sooner when I first started limping.
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