Grab a kickboard

Please... I haven't been in tbe pool since Jan. 9th, 2017. Try some useful advice... I'd really appreciate it!

...Maybe I shoulda posted this in the LR...

I’m serious. There’s many stories of world class swimmers who spent summers as kids with broken arms & kicking kicking kicking. Kieren Perkins has always been my favorite.

I had a non-displaced greater tuberosity fracture in Sept 2016. I went over my handlebars going 30 mph down a mountain and landed on my elbows, somehow it broke the left GT and nothing else. I wasn't able to do anything other than walking for 3 weeks, then I started running very cautiously. I did a half marathon 8 weeks after the break and a full marathon 12 weeks after the break. I started swimming 16 weeks after the break and did a half ironman 24 weeks after the break. I ended up doing 6 half ironmans in 2017 after the break. The shoulder got better every day, but it took over 1 year before I could move it freely without any pain. I couldn't ride a road bike for abut 7-8 months because of the pain from the arm position, but the tri bike was no problem. I'm guessing the crash worked all the connecting tissue pretty good as well and that's what took so long to get back to normal. I still feel some popping and funkiness when I start swimming, but it goes away after a few strokes. Mentally I still can't descend like I used to and I've been racing bikes since I was 10 years old. I just turned 41 this past weekend, so I was relatively close to your current age being 39 when my crash happened.

Sorry to hear you are dealing with this, it sucks! Hope that helps, PM me if you have any more questions.

Do an hour in Zone 1 on the trainer, every day. It's boring as batshit, trust me. (I know this - I'm currently nursing broken ribs)

this is a job for Zwift!

Well you're a whole pile of good news...

Seriously though: basically exactly what I was looking for. Tried to run again tonight and was ok but could feel the fracture so don't think I'm quite ready (I'm stressing it with my job as it is).

I'll definitely have some questions for ya - your answers are much appreciated!

- Jeff

I *hate* the trainer: did maybe 6 rides over the winter, just can't stand it. (Haven't run on a mill in at least 6 years for the same reasons.)

However... maybe this is a good reason to actually get back on it...

- Jeff

So in my case I was told absolutely no running or any other activity that could displace it for the first 3 weeks. The doc said that if I were to jar it loose it would require surgery to fix it, so I listened. After my 3 week x-Ray they determined that it hadn't moved and was relatively secure. I asked if I could start running and they said "only light running if you can't stand to sit still." I didn't tell them that I jumped right back into marathon training, but I did. I didn't take any risks that could cause me to fall down, so no hills or speed work initially, but I was able to do a decent volume of cautious jogging.

I doubt you will be able to do very much in the first few weeks anyways if your arm feels anything like mine did. It hurt like hell even when I laid down funny. I did enjoy the long walks though, it was better than nothing.

One other thing, if yours is just a "suspected" fracture, it's probably not as bad as mine was. Mine was a "definitely fucking broken" fracture. On the x-Ray you could see the break line going all the way through part of my bone. It's hard to explain without a picture, but it was like a chunk completely broke off but was still held in place but the connecting tissue. Basically when my elbow hit the ground it caused a tug of war between my rotator cuff and my greater tuberousity, thankfully for my triathlon career the rotator cuff won.

No way - the trainer is great fun. I love mine and genuinely spend many happy hours in my garage generating Watts and a pool of sweat.

Have a look at a combination of Zwift for epic races, Sufferfest for serious beastings and TrainerRoad for brilliant structured training and you should be able to get through a whole winter without going mental at all. The annual membership of these is collectively sod-all in the greater scheme of things as well.

Obviously don't try this with a broken shoulder....