Clavicle Break: Week 7 (August 4, 2018 - August 10, 2018)

Pain Level: 1, no pain medication.
Discomfort: 1 to 10
Attire: Normal.
Sleeping: Bed.
Nutrition: Transitioning back to weight loss caloric intake, with supplements geared towards bone regrowth.
Mobility: Getting around normally, but still being careful.
Physical Therapy: 3lb range of motion exercises.

This marks my return to relatively normal life as I return to work.  My first day back was Tuesday, August 7th.

Tuesday, August 7th was also my first day back on the trainer.  On Monday, the 6th, I moved the bike down to the basement and was able, without too much trouble, to get it reconnected to the Tacx Neo Smart trainer.  On Tuesday, I attempted my first short and easy 30 minute ride to test the waters and see how things felt.

They.  Felt.  Awesome.  I was grinning from ear to ear nearly the whole time.  I cannot describe how great it felt to be back on the saddle.  There was a very slight level of discomfort in the shoulder that came and went, and wasn't affected by my position.  All in all, this first session green lit future sessions without question.

I rode indoors again Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I posted to /r/TrainerRoad about my plan, and got some good feedback.  The plan was basically to follow the same workout schedule I was previously on, but replace every workout with a very low intensity workout.  I wanted to avoid anything that could cause me to pull to hard on the handlebars.  Furthermore, I'd start with 30 minute sessions only, and increase the time for what would have been intense sessions to 45 minutes and 60 minutes over a few weeks.  Everything would still be low intensity, but where the previous plan called for high intensity, I'd just increase the duration to 45 minutes, then 60 minutes as my body allowed.

Perhaps (hopefully) coincidentally, the latter part of this week saw an increase in pain in other, previously unnoticed areas, specifically between my shoulder blades, and at various areas around my rib cage.  Hearkening back to The Event, where I felt some distinct pains at various points in my back and sides, I became more and more convinced that I had done some ribs as well.  There wasn't any constant ache, but I felt some distinct soreness when breathing deeply as well as a curious NEED to breathe deeply.  I decided to weather it for another week or so.  If it stuck around through the 17th of August, I'd call the doctor about it.  The pain was minor, and wasn't preventing me from doing anything - call it a weakness, but not a limiter.

My replacement bike shopping landed on the Canyon Ultimate CF SLX Movistar 9.0, with Campagnolo Record groupset.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) it won't be available in the U.S. until early 2019.  I took the time to see how it might compare to my Torelli, may she rest in peace...

Physical therapy continued this week, and I increased the weight from 2lbs to 3 lbs.  As before, the only movement that continued to cause some difficulty was the palm up front raise.

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