I did it in 20 weeks with surgery for a plate and AC separation. You can get on the trainer immediately. I walked a lot on a TM at 15%, water running etc. It all sucked but I went pretty good in the race.
Listen to the doc, but just remember that you can do anything that does not slow down the healing.

Downriver swim anyway.

Sorry to hear that. I am also doing Chatt, I broke mine and had surgery about 7wks ago. Before surgery I was on the trainer and treadmill walking incline 2 days after I broke it in a sling.

After surgery I starting riding the trainer 5 days post op and treadmill walking with 10 incline with sling.
I just got cleared to run last week, with limited rom it's tough but doable.
Just started riding this weekend and did 2 rides at 60mi.
I Won't be cleared for swimming for another week.
Trying to get my shoulder working again is tough, I lost pretty much all muscle but every day shows small improvement.

Hard to say...I broke my collarbone four weeks ago at the Boise HIM. No surgery. The collar bone break itself is kind of annoying, but I also broke my shoulder and seven ribs which have added major pain to the equation.

I'm 8 weeks out from the Worlds in Edmonton and at this point I'm just not sure I'm going to make it. If I could get back into training in a couple of weeks, maybe.

I haven't done squat since my injury since just walking around is painful. I'm hoping in the next two weeks I can hit the treadmill and perhaps even get on my bike trainer. Biggest challenge is just getting up on the bike seat and positioned with my left side totally F'd up.

Good luck with your injury.

Broke mine in August 2012. No surgery required. It was a good 3 months before I could swim. Bike comes back first, followed by the run. But getting the full range of motion back required for the swim took a while. Sorry to hear about your accident.

trifan wrote:

Hit a branch on the road and took a spill. Have broken my other collarbone before and it required surgery and a plate. This time it's not so bad and I will get by with a sling. Making an appointment with Ortho tomorrow but was wondering how quickly I can get back to training and in which disciplines. I know some here have gone though this so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Broke mine 3 weeks out from IMLP in 2012 and I was able to do it. I didn't require surgery, just the figure 8 brace and a sling. I swam with one arm, put almost all of my weight on my opposite shoulder, and ran in my sling.

Take your race strategy and throw it out the window, at this point it's a survival test. Take some time off until the 'bouncing' soreness goes away then I would spend time on the trainer. Stay out of the water and don't run either. Your fitness needs to be maintained as best as possible on the bike.

If you've been doing your homework with the training you won't suffer too much with some time off. Obviously you'd like to have another full 11 weeks but that's not going to happen so move on and don't let it bother you.

If I can do it 3 weeks out...you can certainly doing it with 11 weeks. A link below to my race report to get an idea of what I went through and you might encounter.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=452733

Good luck!

Eleven weeks out is probably right on the hump of being healed. You can probably get there with maybe the swim suffering from range of motion and run because you'll probably have a 4-5 week break from running right now. Realistically you might just be getting some of that back by then. I think you can keep your fitness up and then make it through though.

Cornick must be crazy tough and stubborn. Swim with one arm! Are you kidding me! Makes me feel like a pansy for complaining about not being able to sleep on might right side still.

Eleven should be doable and will probably be a good target to keep you going while you heel.

Good Luck!

I broke mine in 2013, six weeks out from IM Canada. It was an outside break, not in the middle of the collarbone, so I thought I might be OK. I ran 15 miles the next day, and consulted the docs about swimming, etc. They said it was stable but stressing it obviously could make it less so. What made up my mind was that I tried getting in the water later in the week and there was absolutely no way I could swim with it, so I scratched. You are far enough out that it might be OK, but then there's the issue of how much swimming you could do in the meantime.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Is deferring out of the question?

I broke mine 9 weeks ago and had to have a plate put in. I also had some shoulder tendon injury in addition to the break.

I can comment best on cycling since I'm in pure bike mode this summer so its not affecting triathlon. I was on an exercise bike almost immediately and back on a trainer a couple weeks later (I could not get my hand on the bars so the exercise bike was the only option for a couple weeks as riding on the trainer one handed was very uncomfortable). I was back on the bike outside by week 6 and feel pretty good. Certainly a bike leg of a HIM would be no trouble and I could do 100+ miles with the only limiter being my conditioning is behind because of the missed training miles but my shoulder would not be a major issue.

Swimming would be the hard part. There is no way I could swim now (at least anything other than a pathetic breast stroke) and based on how my shoulder feels, I'm not sure when, or even ever, I might be able to swim like a used to. But, I that has much more to do with the shoulder injury than just the bone break.

As mentioned I am not running now but I feel I could have been back to running very soon, basically as soon as I was comfortable my arm could move enough to provide balance. Bouncing did not bother me but I think it would actually be worse without a plate. Surgery is best avoided if possible but, if like me you need it, one advantage is the bone is probably 80% "healed" as soon as the last screw goes in.

If you have been through this before you know this but it is worth reminding yourself of. Improvement/healing likely will not be linear. Just because 4 weeks from now you can't, for example, ride outside at all does not mean that 2 or 3 weeks later you will not be able to knock off a 100 mile ride. Just do what you can do and don't get too caught up in worrying about where you will be in the future.

Just saw the ortho doc. Bone is broken but not misaligned, which is good. Will need to be in sling three weeks solid, then, depending on follow up x-ray, off and on for another three weeks. I can ride my bike on the trainer provided I keep the arm immobile. No running or swimming for six weeks, then a slow introduction back. Any thoughts of getting a personal best out of this Ironman are gone but it looks like I'll be able to race provided the bones stay in place.

Your race report is just what the "doctor" ordered....i did a triple lindy off my bike on mile 95 of training ride in cartersville ga 10 days ago getting ready for #IMLOU aug 24....level 3 AC jt separation...dr. Prescribed surgery, took some more pics and then reversed and said PT...day one post crash had zero mobility....by tues this week was on trainer, ran in sling wed, trainer thurs, 1.4m one arm swim in pool fri and 9 mile run with arm in sling yesterday...going to make a go for it like you did at IMLOU...one arm swim w snorkel, road bike refit to move hoods a bit closer to me instead of tri bike, shoulder brace motocross guys use when they break their shoulders and run arm in sling...your race report rocks...congrats