Pretty sure I’ve just broken (or at least very badly bruised) a rib/ribs after taking a tumble whilst out running today.
Anyone got any experience of this or advice regarding recovery?
Guess I’ll have to see how it plays out over the next few days but right now I’m pretty incapacitated. I’m supposed to be doing Bolton in 4 weeks and right now I’m not feeling very optimistic about being on that start line. More optimistic about Copenhagen at the end of August although I can see that this will impact my prep pretty significantly.
NHS website reckons 3-6 weeks recovery time. Anyone got stories of miraculously fast recovery times that I can cling to?
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I did that last summer. It was a few days of being really sore, sleeping wasn’t fun. Then settled down a bit and was alright for most things the following week. Coughing really hurt for quite a while.
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Yeah, there is nothing you can do, but it does get better pretty quickly. Even deep breaths hurt to begin with, then it was just laughing and coughing. Then just have to make sure didn’t fall over again. I suspect this is why NHS say 3-6 weeks, I would expect to feel fine after 2-3, but bash them again and you are back to square 1.
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Good luck with the recovery
I’ve hurt my ribs snowboarding a few times. I was able to cycle pretty soon after but one time I definitely started running too soon, felt fine on a 5k so did a long one and I was back to square one and took a few more weeks to recover.
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I recon you’ll be fine, broke a rib 3 weeks before Vichy, first couple of days weren’t nice, by race day it was an inconvenience…:. However I May not be normal
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Thanks @Matthew_Spooner you’ve proved multiple times that you’re far from normal 
but if I can be anywhere near that recovery timeframe I’ll be a happy man
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Don’t sneeze 
for just bruising and a quick recovery.
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I recon it is a blessing in disguise, it will take the edge of your performance in Bolton, as a result you won’t over do it and it’ll be a huge boost for Copenhagen
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I broke 6, all down the r/h side ( busted a hip, smashed a collar bone into 4 pieces and punctured a lung to with it).
First piece of advice is ‘don’t sneeze’ serious;y! My ribs never really knitted back properly, they click a lot when I swim and my TT position was forever compromised after it.
So do all you can to heal properly because races happen every year but a successful recovery, doesn’t. I can only sleep on my r/h side for 15 mins at a time, max.
After 5mths I could gingerly pedal on the turbo, if I had a half inflated beach ball supporting my chest.
Don’t be me. Good luck 
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That’s how I need to think about it!!!
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Jeez, proper grim! I’ll consider myself warned
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I’ve cracked ribs playing American football. I continued to play over the following weeks. It was horrendous every time I got hit, but it’s an acute pain that subsides pretty quickly.
Take some paracetamol. Deaden the pain a bit. Coughing and sneezing is the worst, but heavy breathing was always OK.
If it’s actually broken then that’s a bit worse, as any further aggravation can risk puncturing the lung. So if its just pain, then I think you’ll be fine. But I would maybe be a bit more cautious on risk taking with a significant break (ie stick to the turbo)
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I took a nasty kick to the ribs at the Cotswold Classic Smackdown swim & couldn’t run for a couple of weeks but I could cycle & surprisingly swim.
After that fortnight, though still uncomfortable, I could start running again.
So 
for bruising.
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That’s a proper injury. Not really compatible to your usual 1 or 2 cracked ribs of dislocated shoulder broken collar bone etc
It was a horrendous accident and most of the damage was from me impaling myself on my own TT bars. ( I kind of high sided and came down very hard).
Extremely close to never getting on a bike again and whilst i did race again, TBH I was never the same, both in talent and confidence.
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thought we’d taken you out, but you still dominated the dojo
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Thanks for the thought @Adam
I’m a nutshell, it’s going a lot better than I could have imagined a couple days ago.
Following the advice I stuck to paracetamol for the first 48 hrs which helped with the pain but since switching to ibuprofen I’ve seen a rapid relief of symptoms. Even managed to get on the turbo today!
At the moment I’m able to pedal symptom and pain free provided I keep the hr super low to avoid taking deep breaths.
It’s odd the things that I can manage (the turbo, doing the food shopping, even carrying things) compared with the things I can’t (getting in and out of the car and -even worse getting in and out of bed). Seems to be any torsional load bearing movement is a no no.
So based on the last few days I’m increasingly optimistic I’ll still be lining up at Bolton albeit not in the kind of shape I’d hoped to be in. Reckon I’m a good while away from being able to run and even further away from being able to swim. That being said, even if I can keep up a regime of regular low intensity bike work I should be ok - I’m telling myself it’s like doing the old traditional base building work. This should stand me in good stead for Copenhagen and means I can go into Bolton with a much more relaxed outlook.
Reckon the hardest thing is going to be adjusting my food intake to match the reduced training stress. I’m still eating as if I’m doing 1000tss weeks!
Looks like you’ve been getting some quality work done in the last week
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