I was wondering if there’s a way to see what Dr. Stephen Cheung was doing, as far as cycling goes, on his recovery journey? I know there’s mentions on the podcast, but would like to see the daily workouts, if possible, and choices in workouts. Any link/blog, that contains this info?
On a side note, I’m coming off of surgery, about 3-4 months now, and have been doing really light and short work as it’s easy to just stop and say it hurts in an abnormal manner, on a trainer, than it is to try and ride outside and find you’re too far to make it back without a ride. I don’t yet know if I can try for max efforts, but I do know my fitness has dropped considerably (4 stars to 2 stars), and can expect a significant drop in my power profile too.
I began to wonder in what way do others “make it back”, what is the progression, and how well does XATA work here. In large part, I’m going off of heart rate, as it’s the easiest to track, as well as to determine the loss of aerobic fitness, without having some maximum efforts in place. No FTP test, though I tried a ramp test the other day, and aborted because it hurt in a wrong way. Sub-FTP work seems OK.
Hope your recovery is going well. I’ll follow up with more detail here shortly. First the basics:
Broken/dislocated right foot May 19 2019. No surgery.
Completely on crutches, airboot, and no weightbearing for 8-10 weeks.
Physiotherapy began around mid-July. Finally completed mid-January.
First trainer ride mid-August.
First outdoor ride late August.
Fitness dropped from 4 stars (TP 250) to 2 stars (TP 205).
Did nothing but easy rides for the first 2 weeks or so, very short and couldn’t generate any power due to ankle stiffness and pain.
After 2 weeks, attempted an outdoor Ronnestad workout to reset signature. Managed a breakthrough but could only perform 1/3 sets.
Keep in mind that this is now mid to late September and I had no goals left until April 2020 gravel races. So my only focus was to regain fitness gradually rather than rush anything. Set myself to No Decay and goal date of Dec 31 to start with and an Athlete Type of Climber to help gradually build fitness. Indoors I generally followed XATA. When outdoors I just rode endurance pace for duration to build up volume and XSS.
Jan 1, I reset Athlete Type to Breakaway Specialist and target goal date April 26 (Paris-Ancaster gravel race). Kept it on No Decay. Generally follow XATA indoors and again duration while outdoors.
Just checked and my TP Feb 26 2019 is 233 and currently 237.