16 Weeks Post Surgery

 I had another PT visit on Monday which will likely be my last one for this issue.  He was very happy about how I have regained strength in my shoulder.  He tested my strength and flexibility and seemed happy with that too.

We cut down the number of exercises for me to do, this is what I have been doing:

1.  On back arm overhead

2.  On right side arm overhead

3.  On right side backwards curl

4.  On right side left arm supported by right, backward curl forwards

5.  Sitting up arms in front stretching band

6.  On left side left arm curl, or ban with attached to wall internal rotation

7.  Pendulums (I pretty much stopped this one)

8.  Standing up left arm stretch behind (I pretty much stopped this one too)

9.  Wall angels

10.  Standing up arm on side to overhead

11.  Arm behind back stretches

12.  Kettlebell halo

13.  Thread the needle, on all four move left under body then reach up 

14.  Half Turkish get up, on back left arm up with weight then reach up

15.  Serratus Plank, plank on bench arch back and pull shoulder blades together

16.  Band attached to a low point, hold band low with arm across body.  Move hand/arm in a diagonal up and over to upper opposite side with arm extended.

These were optional and I did them on occasion:

17.  Around the clock with a band

18.  Curl then overhead

19.  Inclined Pushups

20.  Bench press up to 45lbs

21.  Deadlift up to 65lbs

22.  Overhead press 10lbs each arm separately for 30 to 40 steps

Because I've felt a need to do these with both sides, we have narrowed down to these to cut the time down:

4.  On right side left arm supported by right, backward curl forwards

9.  Wall angels

10.  Standing up arm on side to overhead

12.  Kettlebell halo

13.  Thread the needle, on all four move left under body then reach up 

14.  Half Turkish get up, on back left arm up with weight then reach up

15.  Serratus Plank, plank on bench arch back and pull shoulder blades together

16.  Band attached to a low point, hold band low with arm across body.  Move hand/arm in a diagonal up and over to upper opposite side with arm extended.

In addition to these, I'm now including a few others that I've done before:

Squats

Deadlift

Bench Press

Seated Row

Lat pull downs or pull up depending on where I'm at

I may try to do some overhead presses.

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I'm not sure but I may start racing in the middle of March depending on my fitness.  My original plan was for the middle of April but the racing season is finished before then.  I'm still debating on racing on the road this summer.

I cut my riding volume down to 150 miles last week because I'm having a problem recovering from the work I've been doing.  This week I'm trying really hard to get more sleep (9 hours) to get back on track.  I started squatting last Saturday, even though it was light, it took a lot out of my legs.

Plans for this week are to complete my baseline test of 6x5(5) again.  I had worked up to about 195watts last fall but I should be capable of more now.  I did the workout as a Z3 last night and felt pretty good.  Provided everything goes well, I'm going to try the Tuesday Night Track Practice again next week.

15 Weeks since my AC Reconstruction Surgery

 A little late this week.

I've seen significant improvements in my strength exercises and the shoulder stability is getting better.

I've got 15 different strength exercises and stretches to do, it takes me about 45 minutes to get through them with just one arm.  The issue now is that for some of them, I'm seeing more strength than in my right shoulder.  Now I'm doing both shoulders so one doesn't lag behind.  Anything that requires stability still needs work but there are a few that I can do better with my left than my right.

I realized this while riding on the horns on my new track bars.  I feel some weakness in my right that I don't have in my left.  The position is awkward but fairly aerodynamic and powerful.

I have made 200+ miles a week for 10 weeks now, I've debated on reducing it a little but always seem to cram in the miles to meet the goal.  Right now I'm not seeing the improvement I expected to see so I'm going to reduce volume this week and maybe the next to rest up a bit to be capable of doing higher power work.  This is my last week of the 6 week threshold block, next week I'll test with 6x5(5) again then rest up a bit before going to Arizona to see David G.  I may even try the Tuesday Track Practice in the week before I leave.

Other notes:  I weighed in at 147.7lbs today, I bumped my run up to 15 minutes 3 times a week.  My legs are feeling better than I did before week 14.  I got a tattoo on Wednesday so I won't be able to swim this week but I probably will next week.  I swam 1000 yds last Friday without pain, I stopped to limit stress and I was tired.  Workout was 5X100 on 2' and 10X50 on 1'.

14 Weeks since my AC Reconstruction Surgery

Good and not as good things happened last week.

I'm getting better every week but the gains are coming slower, or at least I feel they are.  I'm doing more exercises to get stronger and maybe they are making me feel like I'm not healing.

I was unable to swim over the weekend because of the pool schedule, I may try today and then do my stretches at the Rec Center after swimming.  If I do it'll only be 500 yds again to keep the load low.

My legs were very tired last week on the bike despite taking it a little easier the previous week.  I skipped the Saturday morning track practice in favor of riding easy on Zwift.  Sunday was about the same intensity as last week.

I slacked off on the shoulder exercises a bit this week.  First because I was a little lazy and second because I was sore and wanted to see if it would get better with a little less stress on it.

My weight was as low as 148 lbs last week.  I'm cautiously optimistic that it will continue to drop.

13 Weeks Post Surgery

I have my last Physical Therapy appointment today.  I really feel I should have more but BCN says they are not medically necessary.  Interesting that they would pay for them before my surgery when it actually was useless, but not now when I could benefit from the guidance, they won't.

I had an appointment with my surgeon last Tuesday.  She said I could go back to riding on the track, could introduce overhead strength work and start swimming again.  The X-Rays revealed no stretching of the grafts and everything is where is should be.  There will still be a small bump on my shoulder consistent with a Grade 1 separation but everything is healing well.  It will still be another 3 months before I should go back to bike racing and healing will go on for about a year.

Shoulder is feeling much better, I've avoided the things that made it sore and introduced new things that could have made it sore. 😁 I swam for the first time on Saturday.  I purposely held it to 500 yards to see how it would be.  The best description I can give is that it felt loose in the socket and slightly painful.  I was only swimming 50's on a minute so it wasn't fast.  Afterwards I ran on the LRC track and did my exercises.  In addition to the exercises I used the pull up machine with 100lbs of assist.  I am ~150lbs right now so it's like pulling ~50lbs.

I rode 204 miles last week with a mix of track and Zwift, ran 3 times and swam short once.  Only one intense day on the bike: Saturday Moring track where I finished all the drills.  It wasn't easy, but I finished them.  There were no jump-the-gap sprints so I didn't put much stress on my shoulder.

Sunday track is progressing well.  We have some new riders that are learning how to do pursuits, they seem very enthusiastic (wow I spelled that right on the first try) and are working out well.  We have a very good candidate for our fourth member of our team, I feel he fits in really well.

My strength exercises are going well.  I've increased the weight I've been working with a little because I felt some of them were just stretches and too easy to do.  I have 15 exercises to do 3 times a day and it takes me ~40 minutes to complete them as prescribed.  Sometimes I cut them to 2 sets instead of three to save time since most of the time I'm doing them twice at work.

My weight has consistently been 149-150lbs for the last week;  I'm pretty happy about that.  I would like to be down to ~142lbs by May.

Bike training notes

 I'm going to drop the intensity this week to recover. 

No 4x10's but I'll likely ride the Saturday morning practice if available. 

12 weeks post surgery

My shoulder has been better since last week.  I cut the running and bench presses out and things got better by Thursday.  I ran again on Saturday and Sunday and felt good so I feel the bench presses were the cause of the problem.  45lbs was more than I wanted to do but there wasn't a lighter bar.  I need to find an alternative.

Threshold intervals went well last Thursday, they confirmed my TP of 190.  It was just Kevin/Linda and myself doing the intervals, we started off splitting my work as a rotating paceline of 9 strokes each then 20/9.  After that we went 4 laps for me and 1 lap for K/L.  That lowered his power to the range he needed and and raised mine to the power I needed.  I'd like to see and increase of 5 to 10 watts in my next cycle, I'd be happy with 5.

I've been up for 3 weeks now and it's time to lower the training stress for a week so I can recover.  Kevin is on the same cycle.

The Saturday practice is going well. I need to be careful on the "jump the gap" sprints so I don't tweak my shoulder any.  At one point during practice I got my HR just over 180bpm so I was going quite hard.  Our second Sunday of pursuit training went well, we had 7 bikes and worked on exchanges, and finishes.  Today I tried to ride on my aerobars but it turned my left arm to an uncomfortable angle so I abandoned it for now.

I've been pretty good about doing my daily strength exercises, sometimes I miss one but most of the time I don't.  I have an appointment with my surgeon tomorrow and expect to have some restrictions removed.  I'm going to ask if there is something I can do to get more sessions of physical therapy.  I don't need a lot, maybe just 8 sessions so I can make sure I'm doing the right thing to heal up correctly.  I don't want to go through this again.

Body weight has been 149-150 so it dropped a little.  I've been skipping lunch sometimes to reduce calorie counts.  I need to find something more filling to eat for breakfast so I don't snack before lunch.

11 Weeks post surgery

I over-did it last week on the bike and my should is sore.  I rode track a little on Tuesday, then easy on Wednesday, Saturday morning track practice and Sunday easy pursuit drills.  The extra stress on my shoulder is a little too much right now and I'll drop that down a bit.  Combining with Zwift I completed my 200 miles again.  My last threshold session indicated a TP of 190 watts so that came up a little.  I decided to do track workouts instead of the second TP session.  My next one will be on Thursday and I'll see how it turns out.  It should be on the track, I don't know if I should do it solo or with the group, solo would be a better indicator of my abilities but it's also boring.

I have an appointment with my surgeon next Tuesday and I expect some restrictions to be removed.  My PT feels that they'll let me start swimming and do upper body strength exercises.  As of now I have one more PT session left and that is the week after the appointment.

Body weight is still 150-151, I have not been tracking it as closely as I should.  I need to work on that.

Week 10

 Another 200+ mile week on the bike, mostly on Zwift but Saturday I rode on the track.  It was a moderate ride without a whole lot of effort but not easy.  Since I was there to work on the refrigerator and Kevin was there, I choose to ride.  It was busy but uneventful.

I noticed that I ride a lot harder at the track and my moderate days on Zwift need to be a little harder to match that effort.  I plan to be there Tuesday to ride my 10 min intervals with Kevin and whomever else shows up.  My 10 min intervals went well, they indicate my TP is about 185-190 watts.  Garmin estimates 190 watts.

Home therapy is getting better and I'm using more weight than I had in the past few weeks.  I have used some Ibuprofen a few times when I felt swelling was hindering my recovery.  Even though it relieves pain, I'm using it for recovery when needed.  I think it was 2 or 3 times last week, 400-600mg.

I'm 150-151 lbs this week, I'm getting lighter but I need to concentrate on it some more.