Road to Recovery

5:04 am Unknown 0 Comments

I have to say that I'm taking each day as it comes. Trying to plan in 1 fun thing outside of the house, getting some good couch time, pottering around the house and getting that personal todo list shortened.

Today is 1 week anniversary of my operation and I woke up ready to vomit. I have no idea why, must be the medication. A lot of the bruising is starting to fade, all of the very light scabs I had have dropped off (ewww!) and I look pretty normal except for the massive dressing covering my shoulder that adds pressure to the top of the operation site and protects it from bumps and rubbing from clothing.

Another weird reaction is my back has come up in large patches of blisters like sunburn. Not sure if its like a road rash from the crash, post op overheating, or something else entirely. On the whole the pain factor is pretty light, and has switched from bone sore to muscle sore feelings. I can't wait to get the OK to see a physiotherapist for my neck, shoulder, hip and arm!

With the shoulder being pinned, it fixes everything in place so you are in alignment, but you just can't load bear. It is recommended to wear the sling to take tension off the shoulder muscles, but you can move it and I've been told to do some specific rehab 3x a day to keep the joints moving and prevent frozen shoulder etc.

That's all good, but when can I get on the bike! I have to distract myself with other things till I get a little better.

Shopping distraction: Re-vamped my couch to become cushion central


Last month I was invited to speak at the Breeze program Women's Cycling and Beginner Social Media Seminar. With my crash occurring one week before the event, I was ready to cancel and feeling pretty disappointed that I wouldn't get to go. Shane talked me out of cancelling, knowing from his post op experience that I would be OK by that time if everything went to plan.

The event was great fun! Though I might be a little biased as it was the first time I'd been out of the house and allowed to run around. It was a full house with 30-40 women flowing in. The session was structured as follows:

Belinda Hayes gave an overview of Social Media that covered the different types used most frequently (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, linkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and Blogs) and covered a viral video case study

Monique Hanley spoke on the Breeze program, how they hope to use social media and women's natural networking ability to gain better media attention, setup awesome role models for women in sport and promote the fun and cool things we all do.

Andrew Blake from Dirty Deeds Cyclo Cross spoke on CX & Social Media. How their organisation has been growing women's participation at family friendly events to include kids, mud, dress ups and a whole lot of fun without the need to request a government grant.

Then there was me - an expert blogger and high performing user of social media. I had only kind of partly planned what I was going to talk about and then decided to change it up once I heard what the other speakers had covered.

Eliza, Andrew, Belinda and Me. Photo: Alison McCormack

I tried to cover what the intro stuff meant in the real world. How do I use those sites, what do I use them for, and how my use of social media has progressed. How I use different media to organise rides, races, keep in touch,  and tell my stories. That I'm not a winner but I'm out there EVERY weekend as part of Kosdown Performance Cycling and we have FUN and I love it and want to share that with everyone, that is why I started the blog.

Already it has become popular with 2,338 hits since its inception in January and the support I get from it feeds my enthusiasm. Thanks for your time and attention - I must be doing something right if you keep coming back for more.



While I was couch bound for the weekend, my fab carer decided to hand me over to my parents and slip over the border for the South Australian Time Trial Championships.

TT stealth machine AKA - BATBIKE
It would have been about 12months ago when I built up my Time Trial bike, we did a maaaaasive drive over SA to do their championships in the sun and then drove all the way back to attempt the Mt Donna Buang TT  the next day in the rain. Thank goodness the calendar has changed and the Donna TT is now earlier in the year when it is warmer!

Shane sent me through a message to say that while I couldn't make it this year, my presence was still there in the records. It is also great to see a much larger field, could TT's be gaining popularity?


I've had a lot of time to think about ways to improve with my TT's and the number 1 key factor for me is - more time required in TT position on the TT bike. So when I'm back up and running I'm going to put it out there that I'll be on the Richmond flat boulevard on my TT bike in TT position for some sessions and you're welcome to come along (dates TBC on Facebook/twitter).  Maybe with a few ladies there we can practice some Team TTing. I saw this cute post about TTT's the other day from Rouleur Magazine and it inspired me to get aero, but for now I'll just have to think aero thoughts. I'll be back on the road soon...


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