Welp, it’s nine weeks since I ripped my knee open while riding my bike on the way home from work in Chicago. I spent 3 of those weeks off my bike and recuperating. I also took two trips in the first two weeks after the crash, to Boston and San Francisco. That was by far the most difficult thing about the injury as my knee would begin to stiffen up and hurt if I spent more than 20-30 minutes standing around–lets not even talk about getting my knee to bend into an appropriate position for coach seats!
When I first started riding my bike again, the first 2 weeks were difficult. I had lost about 25% of the power in my injured leg and I really had to lean on my right leg for big pushes of acceleration, which was tough. Rides went from 10 minutes of pain, to 30 seconds of pain at the beginning.
After two weeks I would look forward to my morning ride as tool I work my knee a bit before I got to work. For a while there I would wake up in the morning with an extremely stiff knee and the bike ride was just what I needed to loosen it up.
Now that I’m nine weeks in, I’m 99.9% back to normal! I get the occasional weird tinge in my knee when I’m really cranking, but overall I’m faster than I’ve ever been. That last 0.1% is due to the fact that I no longer have any feeling on the top of my knee, but it’s not exactly at the top of my priority list ;)