Yesterday, I got on my bike for the first time in nearly 2 1/2 weeks. My rib was still sore, but it didn't get worse during my ride. I was careful not to do anything that might make the rib worse, though at the end of my ride, I did do a hard 2 minute effort up the hill in front of my house. That's going to be a reference point for me going forward. While the rib still ached a little back and forth yesterday, my movement felt ok and I never felt like things were unravelling. Rib injuries really do suck, especially when you feel like your on a precipice. That's how this injury has felt. One wrong move, and I'm incapacitated, just like when I sneezed 10 days ago. Will be glad when that fear if gone.
Today, I did the same ride as yesterday. I love the roads where I live, they have lots of long rolling climbs. I was actually surprised to learn that in one hour of cycling today, I'd climbed 1100 feet. I'm going to really enjoy the area, and it will prepare me well for both Boulder and Kona! Today, my ribs felt even better than yesterday. They hurt a little when I take a deep breath, but they feel much more steady, and I feel almost none of the "anchor" feeling that I've had in my chest for the past 2 1/2 weeks. I'm seeing and feeling the light at the end of the tunnel.
At the end of today's ride, I did three one minute hard efforts on the hill up to my house. I didn't look at my wattage, but it turned out that I was holding 350 watts for the minute. Prior to my injury, I was doing repeats at 270 watts, so now I have a point of reference for upcoming workouts. I promised my coach that my limit for cycling would be 1 1/2 hours this week. I'm going to hold to that. I might be able to try out the pool and see how my ribs are doing with swimming as well. I'm not going to think about running until I'm pain free, that is just the nature of this rib injury. The last thing I want to do is set myself back again. I've had my fill of setbacks, first with the right rib injury, and then with the left one. Normally, I can maintain aerobic fitness despite an injury, but this one kept me from doing anything at all for a little over 2 weeks. The good news is that my starting point was close to my peak recent fitness, so I think that I'll be good.
The other interesting thing will be to see how my body responds after this amount of physical rest. I'm hoping that I'll be able to quickly ramp up my training in preparation for Ironman Boulder. Still, I've made progress. That's what matters.
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