The sling officially came off this past Thursday! I celebrated with a slow 5k around the neighborhood in the rain.
On the bright side, the run was not as bad on my legs as I had expected. On the less than bright side, my abs were screaming. Something about avoiding using my abs for 6 weeks while my broken ribs healed.
The next day I pushed it a bit harder and did 5 miles in the heat and humidity. Barring the annoyance of the heat/humidity, my body was feeling good all around. Though Sunday felt like a post-marathon day, with each stair an exercise in pain tolerance. Good pain tolerance. I missed that pain.
My shoulder is feeing significantly better. Basic movement is of no annoyance. Only lifting up as if signaling a touchdown and to the side as if signaling to turn left are issues. Thankfully, this is just the result of immobilization tightness and my three-day-a-week physical therapy should help me get my range of motion back shortly. I’m still a few weeks away from hoping back on the bike, but that’s ok. I can hit the trainer in the heat and run outside for the time being.
On an interesting note, I can feel each and every screw in my clavicle as well as the specific shape of the fixation plate. I can even say with confidence that the screws are philips head.
Finally, the bike survived the crash! I am so happy to be able to get back on it. And with only 260 miles on the odometer, it’d be a shame to retire it so early. The sum of the damage to the bike included twisted aerobar extensions, which were easily straightened, a rotated base bar, which was also easily straightened, and a small chip of paint the size of a pencil erasure where a aero flange contacted the frame. I examined the fork for any stress cracks and saw nothing. Thankfully, she’s just as tight as before the crash.
Ironman Wisconsin is about 12 weeks away. I have a ton a catch up work to do. A frightening amount of work.