4 Months Since Surgery

June 4th was the 4-month anniversary of the surgery on my broken hip. Life isn't "normal" yet, but it's close.

My limp is much better. I still limp a little bit, but it's not as obvious and I'm not as self-conscious about it. I think it's one of those things that just takes time. As my leg gets stronger, the limp decreases. I have better balance on my bad leg, I can lift heavier weights, and I can use a tighter resistance band. I can do lunges now, which I couldn't do a month ago. My flexibility is very close to where it was before the injury. I still have progress to make. I don't climb stairs well. The lunges still hurt and my form isn't perfect. My left leg is still much weaker than the right except for maybe my calves. I'm getting there, but I'm not there yet.

I'm a little more patient now. At first I was so worried and I felt like some of my pain was a sign that something was going horribly wrong. I didn't have any trust in my recovery and I hated the idea that there was a foreign object in my body. Now I've seen progress and I've felt the pain decrease over time. I feel like a little pain here and there is normal. I'm still not crazy about the foreign object in my body, but I'm learning to accept it. I'm mostly pain-free. I still get pain when I sleep. If I've been sitting around too long, those first few steps after I get up hurt a little bit.

What about the bike? I did my first century on May 3rd and I've been doing one a week since then. It wasn't a goal of mine to go back to doing a century per week right away, but I've felt good and the weather's been nice, so I couldn't resist. Because things are going so well, I've made it an official goal to complete all 8 passes at the Alta Alpina Challenge on June 28th.. With that in mind, I did back-to-back centuries on the 24th and 25th. I did 120 miles on the 30th and will work my way up to 150.

I'm not as fast as I used to be (which wasn't fast to begin with), especially on the climbs. I'm not sure how much of that is my weak left leg and how much of that is just being out of shape. I'm not too worried about it at the moment. It may sound corny, but as long as I'm out there pushing myself and making progress from week to week, I'm happy.

I'm still lacking confidence in my bike handling abilities. I take it super slow through the corners and I'm extra cautious on the descents. I'm wearing the hell out of my brake pads. I had a moment on the Mt. Rose descent one week where I freaked out and my hands started shaking enough to make my bike wobble from side to side. I had to pull over and compose myself. I'm not even sure what caused it. I wasn't really going all that fast. I was just worrying about crashing. Overall, though, I am getting more comfortable. I did both sides of Monitor and Ebbetts and I never felt scared. I kept my speed in check, but I was never uncomfortable. I think this is another thing that will come with time. I do the Geiger descent a lot and I know it very well, so I just let myself go a little bit faster each time. I have my ups and downs, but overall I'm getting better.

Physically, my body feels fine. My hip doesn't bother me when I'm riding. A month ago I could still feel some pain when I was out of the saddle climbing. That's pretty much gone now. As long as the hip itself doesn't hurt, I feel justified in riding as much as I want. (The off-bike workouts I've been doing give me more hip soreness than riding does.) I did over 1,000 miles in May. A lot of it wasn't high intensity, but it's still a positive sign.

As a whole, I feel like there are two sides to my recovery: the bike side and the off-bike side. Recovery has come much faster and easier for me on the bike versus off the bike. However, the gains I make on the bike give me the confidence that gains will come off the bike in due time. I just need to keep doing my exercises, keep stretching, and give it time.