As I said, these will need to be a little fluid, as I'm not quite out of the woods yet physically.
Recover Well
I strongly recommend you never break your shoulder. Prevention is better than cure, and all that.
I'm currently being quoted 80-90% range of motion in 2 years. I'm obviously going to aim for the upper boundaries of that, though good luck really nailing down what "90% range of motion" is defined as with regard to a shoulder...it's got 6 ranges of motion.
I'm going to go through the various ranges now as listed above, and note the results here so I can come back and compare in 3/6/9/12 months time. The "out of" score is the left arm for comparison (and it should be noted that pre-accident my right arm had more ROM, as the left shoulder has previous damage).
Right now, I have;
- Flexion - 50-60% - 90-100' (out of 200')...able to get just above vertical, with some pain around upper arm.
- Extension - 25% - 15' (out of 60')...hard to quantify. My left arm can reach my right armpit behind my back. My right arm can just about reach my waist at the middle of the back.
- Abduction - 50-60% - 80-90' (out of 160')...able to rotate to just above the shoulder. Left arm can go past vertical and have the upper arm resting on ear.
- Adduction - 80-85% - 25-30' (out of 50')...this one has improved massively recently. In the last week I've been able to wash my left armpit and reach the outside of the left arm
- Medial Rotation - 90% - 75' (out of 75')...this one is fine...ROM is there, slightly tightening of the bicep at full rotation.
- Lateral Rotation - 30% - 30' (out of 90')...a real weak one, and physio is focusing on this. Been caught out a couple of times catching closing doors etc.
In more practical terms, I need to be able to get a t-shirt on and off normally (flexion and abduction), and put something in a cycling jersey pocket (extension).
Get back to Healthy
This one starts tomorrow, though some pre-work has been done. I clambered back on the indoor bike 4 weeks ago, and the diet started today. I'm back onto a formal training plan tomorrow, and hoping to get the replacement bike for outdoors in the next week (it's currently at "In Picking" status at Canyons Germany factory...which should mean all the bits are there, it just needs to be assembled and shipped).
I want to be back to sub-70kg, and FTP of about 300w. Those are currently about 75-76kg, and 240'ish FTP. Eat less, Ride more.
I have 3 planned cycling trips, and I'd like to be healthy enough to enjoy them, even if I'm not at the level of fitness I had originally planned;
- End of January - Gran Canaria (cheapest holiday ever, the original plan was to do a monster base-training weekend. Right now I'll be happy with a couple of hours a day)
- End of February - Spain Coached Camp
- April - Mallorca. I'd like to be able to do a "normal" Mallorca trip...maybe 20-25 hours riding, and pusing hard on a couple of big climbs.
Sort out the Mortgage
It's a bloody terrible year for a fixed period on a mortgage to expire...but thats what we have occuring at the start of June. Currently going through the options we have. We are not in a terrible position (over 60% equity in the house, plenty of savings), it's working out what is the best option for now and the next 3-5 years. We now both have remote-working contracts and long term tenure in companies (fun fact, in 4 days I reach my 25-year anniversary at Yell), which also opens up other avenues.
Listen to more varied music
This one is already in motion, but needs formalising. As I've noted, I was in a bit of a rut when it came to variety of music...pretty much having a 24-hour playlist on repeat. In the last month, I've increased my music library from ~5,000 tracks to ~22,000, and I've on purposely added in genres/artists that would normally not get onto a playlist. I've then stopped using Playlists, and instead using Plexamps Radio Function. This is pretty cool...you pick a handful of artists you like, and it then starts generating a non-stop playlist based on the genres/moods etc. I've given it a lot of freedom (3-degrees of freedom), and just let it go.
I've also been actively seeking new artists. I can tell I'm getting a bit old, as my tastes are reverting, and I've been listening to a lot of modern synthwave (if you like CellDweller, Klayton does a shitload of electronic genres, and runs multiple record labels FiXT is where CellDweller lives, FiXT Neon has Synthwave and more electronica stuff, and FiXT Radium is the more metal side of things). Lots of 90's game samples, sythesizer etc...good for working out and the like...plenty of energy.
Read a bit more variety
I've spent a lot of time illinjured, and in hospital this year...plenty of time for reading! I've not, however, really been reading much quality...more pulp fiction reads as comfort food. Thats all very well, but I'll aim to put some more quality in there, and maybe (don't hold your breath) move outside of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy tropes. I un-expectedly really enjoyed Richard Osmans Thursday Murder Club...it's not super-serious, but it's well-written, and with genuinely enjoyable characters.
I also have a metric butt-tonne of audiobooks that I can work through...
A long to-do list
There is some other stuff I'd like to do, but much of it is dependent on health, or secondary issues around recovery. These may get shuffled in/out as opportunity permits.
I have a phase 2 of tattooing planned (legs, shoulder), but need to be comfortable sitting/lying for several hours, and the shoulder scar needs to fully heal for repair work.
We are hoping to get back to the Maldives in autumn, and I'd like to get my advanced diver and Nitrox qualifications...but need to sort out mortgage first.
I'd like to re-work my office, but again mortgage and top-level financials come first.
I'd obviously like to not break anything this year...however that does not feel like it should have to be a stated goal.
I'd like to rationalise my bike collection...this is already partly underway. I have 2 bikes in a repair shop, with the intention that only one comes back (with lots of spares).
(this is going down a rabbit warren) I've been investigating how to rework my commuter (a href="https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/road-bikes/london-road" target="_blank">a fairly old Planet-X London Road. In a shock to absolutely no-one, I've formed quite strong opinions on what I do and do not like about bikes, and I really don't like SRAM gear systems, and cable-operated gears generally. My commuter tends to spend long periods inactive, and is only ridden in bad weather or when I need to go somewhere and then walk (shopping etc), as the shoes/cleats are embedded. This means that it tends to rust. Right now it's got one gear on the rear, as the gear cable as rusted in the sleeve (replacement cable on order, but the age of the bike and the vagaries of SRAM supply chains means it's gonna take a couple of weeks). So my "good" bikes don't have gear cables...they are all on electrically actuated gears (aka Di2), which is;
- Bloody Amazing
- Bloody Expensive
Buying a full Di2 groupset for the commuter would be a couple of thousand pounds...way more than the bike is worth. Another option may be (and I've only just discovered this exists) getting a Di2 internal gear hub, having a rear wheel built around it, and then use some of those spares from the 2 bikes in the repair shop to build 1x8/11 bike up (with a 300-400% gear range, more than enough for a commuter). I'd only need one Di2 shifter (which I should have spare), and a cable set (which I should have spare), and a bottom bracket (which I should have spare). I think that the shifters will run cable-actuated disc brakes (rather than hydraulic, which would require a lot of extra money)...so I'd end up with a 1x8 all-weather bike, and only the chain can rust really, no sleeved gear cables🥳!
I'm going to speak to the repair guy about the feasibility of it all. If I can do that, I may be able to get rid of my (very very old) Boardman MTB, which is my spare spare bike.