When I broke a pair of ribs last year, walking on the treadmill at an incline or just powerwalking in the park were my go-tos. Still hurt, but wasn’t stopping me cold. Psychologically, I watched a lot of YouTube videos on Olympic marathon walking and tried to convince myself the season wasn’t a loss.

Tried to get the hr up a bit and suffered through some painful rides on the bike the week after. Continued with powerwalking and riding for several weeks. Couldn’t handle engaging my core and aero, so added a couple extra spacers to my road bike and achieved a very lazy road position. And then one day... about 4 or 5 weeks afterwards, the sharp pain subsided to full and eventually stopped hurting to the point where I could resume normal training.

I had a very nasty bike crash on Thanksgiving day that resulted in internal hemorraghing of the brain, broken clavicle and scapula, 6 cracked ribs. I obviously didnt train much immediatey after that accident.

When really injured: focus on the positive. Go for walks. Enjoy the sunshine. Smile because you are alive and well

When the Dr gives you the green light to train: go for it! Enjoy the fact that you can train again. Enjoy the sweat, the dopamines, and the ability to go back to your routine.

As for performance recovery times: i returned to within 95 - 98% of my bike fitness in two months; 3 months for the run; and 5 months for the swim (which is where i am now). I am AMAZED how quickly fitness returns despite what the CTLs and TSS's tell you.

If your fitness was good beforehand, you will be back in good form soon. No doubt.

Hope this helps

Relax, it will likely be a blessing in disguise if you can be patient. Focus on what you can do, what you have neglected. Brush up on youtube videos to learn about the sport, technique, equipment whatever. Your fitness will be fine and will come back quick :)

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When I injured my back very badly and was sidelined for some 3 months I took time to explore things that had absolutely nothing to do with fitness/triathlon. I built scale models, read history books and did photography. There is a whole big world outside triathlons and training no matter what will just screw you up more. On the positive side, it will give you more time to explore other things and realize that there really are things that you like that don't involve watts, nutrition, spending lots of money on equipment etc

First, don't worry about fitness. It will come back and you'll have fun chasing it back.

What can you do with broken ribs? I had 4 broken ribs + clavicle. Spent my days in a recliner catching up on TV shows and reading books. Could not use that side for a few weeks, so played some video games that only require mouse movements (Dota 2 and some other ones I can't remember).