Broken Riders - Joining The Party (Long Read)

[Richard G]

Oh no!

I suspect Prince Charles hospital was amused to see another of us.

[dlovett]

How many times have I said Wales is dangerous to you? Whenever you visit England you are fine. Riding in Wales always seams to damage you.

[Richard G]

Sadly that's been proven wrong by one of my worst crashes previous to this (YD300 after I left you guys).

[dlovett]

Sadly that's been proven wrong by one of my worst crashes previous to this (YD300 after I left you guys).

Erm England 1 Wales 10!!!

Still there are so many sheep up there in that there dales it’s practically welsh!

[Richard G]

[Richard G]

Good news!

Just had my 6 week check-up and apparently everything is where it needs to be. I'm now going to be able to partial weight bear on my right leg. Basically means I can put half my body weight on that side, so in theory I can stand unaided (obviously still need my crutches to move).

6 weeks to next test, but at least I can do different exercises now to ease the boredom. Looking forward to trying out Alter-G too.

Swelling still pretty bad at the moment, but hoping it will get better now I'm able to get the leg working a bit more to improve blood flow. Going to slowly try to start sleeping on my side again now that I'm not so worried about pressure on the hip.

Onwards and upwards!

[Bearlegged]

Good news, hope your recovery continues well!

[Bearbonesnorm]

Yay

[redefined_cycles]

Keep it up Richard and hope you just gets better and better quickly buddy...

[Richard G]

Cheers all. Still a long way to go, but at least I can replace some of these extremely boring exercises.

[Richard G]

Another quick update. Still on crutches for another couple of weeks.

Sort of accidentally did a ramp test the other day (TrainerRoad app wanted me to do it when it loaded) so I got an idea of where my power output level is currently. On the back of that I've decided to put together a light training schedule in the hopes of getting some fitness / strength back.

Did 45 mins yesterday and feel utterly ruined. Had massive fatigue in my right ankle and obliques. I guess they've not been doing anything for a long time.

Going to do very little today (maybe a bit of Wii Fit) and hope I can recover ready for a slightly longer session tomorrow.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Good work. Don't over do it mind, slow and steady and a full repair. I hit 45 and suddenly started to notice all the old injuries that I never properly looked after or got seen to, coming back to haunt me.

[Richard G]

Aye, I'm definitely being careful with it.

The idea of not being able to fully recover terrifies me, so I'd rather do it slower for longer term gain. It's a sub standard thing to balance though, because too little can result in the same issues.

[Mart]

God to hear your going the right way - OK it sounds like little baby steps but the right way none the less
Echo sentiments above - take it slowly and heal properly


I hated it when my hamstring snapped, the boredom is the worst bit.
It does take time but you will be better for it in the long run

[Richard G]

Just walked for half an hour on an AlterG machine (sans crutches).



Very strange experience, but really good to actually be able to walk again. Have booked another bunch of sessions so I can both get myself ready for when they take the crutches away, and also build up to running after that.

[BigdummySteve]

I hit 45 and suddenly started to notice all the old injuries that I never properly looked after

Same here, 50 two weeks today and have noticed the same, I had a nick name of ‘stacker steve’ due to over exuberance on motorcycles. I’d forgotten about wheel spinning a dirt bike on one wheel ( quickly followed by the most violent filp ever)
I hid the resultant broken foot from my parents and now it gives me grief along with all the others.

I’ve been a lucky bugger though, bikes, racing jet skis, motor cross, skydiving and generally being silly the only hospital job was after falling off my wife’s shopper complete with basket, one badly broken elbow

Mend well Richard

[Richard G]

Bizarrely I seem to have bruised my arse from being on the trainer yesterday. I know it's probably because my butt isn't used to it again yet, but I have to keep telling myself that it's not my hip socket that I've damaged.

Edit - Also, measured yesterday and my right thigh is now two inches smaller than my left. :(

[Blackhound]

Richard, just found this thread ( was away when you originally posted it) and seen the horrible injuries. Appears you are slowly on the mend. Hope recovery continues to go well and see you on the trails in the future.

[middleagedmadness]

Bizarrely I seem to have bruised my arse from being on the trainer yesterday. I know it's probably because my butt isn't used to it again yet, but I have to keep telling myself that it's not my hip socket that I've damaged.

Edit - Also, measured yesterday and my right thigh is now two inches smaller than my left. :(

Rich my right thigh is still way smaller than my left and that's since 2014 when I had my accident, I think I still tend to use my left leg more than my right even though it's more or less fully healed (just a bit bent ) ,I wouldn't worry too much about that muscle mass will return it's just a slow process

[Richard G]

Richard, just found this thread ( was away when you originally posted it) and seen the horrible injuries. Appears you are slowly on the mend. Hope recovery continues to go well and see you on the trails in the future.

Cheers buddy.

Rich my right thigh is still way smaller than my left and that's since 2014 when I had my accident, I think I still tend to use my left leg more than my right even though it's more or less fully healed (just a bit bent ) ,I wouldn't worry too much about that muscle mass will return it's just a slow process

I'm going to be doing single leg isolation work when I'm allowed, so I'll have a good idea of any strength imbalances at least.

[Richard G]

I've had a bit of a setback. Something shifted when I was doing my rehab exercises the other day and everything has tightened up again. It seems to be OK when I put direct pressure on it my leg, but I can't twist my leg without pain now. I reckon that probably means one of the side fractures opened up a little again.

Needless to say I really hope it's not too severe. I wont really know until my next scan in a couple of weeks. Pretty down about it to be honest as I really thought I was making good progress.

Have had a few days off the exercises, and I'm going to get back to them today but minus anything that causes pain there.

[Richard G]

Update time...

Last few weeks have been fairly uneventful. Have used the AlterG treadmill a few times and I'm slowly raising the percentage of my bodyweight that I'm using to walk. I've hit 80%, but despite only doing half an hour I was ruined the next day. Have done maybe five or six turbo trainer sessions as well, and they've also left me suitably knackered. Not ideal as it's meant skipping a lot of my other rehab exercises. I guess I had six weeks of those though, so no massive harm in switching things up.

Just got back from my three month consultation (time doesn't fly, trust me), and sadly it's not all good news. Whilst most of my fractures are healing OK, there's one that basically hasn't done any healing at all. This explains where a particular pain I've been having is coming from. Consultant tried to be upbeat, in that I might see healing there anywhere up to a year or more, but he wasn't particularly convincing.

However, there are big positives. I can now fully weight bear (all weight on one leg), which means I can now drive again. I'll be going from two crutches to one, and with the assistance of the AlterG machine, hopefully I'll be down to none soon enough (maybe just a walking stick for if I get tired?). Being able to drive means I can get to the gym and use machines for isolated muscle training, which will hopefully help a lot getting me walking etc again.

Will still be 9 months before I can do anything involving impact (running / jumping etc), and I can't risk weighted squats etc, but it's a step in the right direction. All my focus now is on getting some fitness back, and eventually walking without a limp.

Oh, and I took a pic of the screen with my x-rays on. Quality isn't great but you can see the metalwork. Longer of the two screws is M6.5x120mm.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Them's some good screws there Richard.

There'll always be set-backs and some things may never be as they once were but that's just a challenge to overcome with imagination.

[Richard G]

Yeah... I'm a bit flat at the moment. Had been optimistic for once about the outcome and it didn't really pay off.

I've got an AlterG appointment at 3pm and I'm looking on the bright side that at least I'll be able to drive to it (and hopefully handle another 5% body weight).

Then I plan on getting drunk to celemiserate.

[middleagedmadness]

Don't stress over the mal-union rich ,I had the same with my leg ,went back in for a simple procedure where they basically drilled and ground around where the bone wasn't healing basically causing the bone to rub and bleed which created the healing pretty damn quick after that , chin up mucka it gets better ,as Stu says maybe not perfect but useable