Fractured toe

[Rex]

Saturday November 26th I fracture my little toe on my left foot from an accident at home.
Lots of ice & elevation and a huge amount of swelling that has mostly gone down now.

I've ridden just once since then, Sunday 4th where I did 115km of which most of it was a fast bunch ride. My foot is ok in the cycling shoe as there is little movement. When I took my shoe off, it was not so ok.
The amount of walking I need to do to get to work and home is not helping.

Now that the swelling has mostly gone, the pain has changed to much sharper around the toe itself.

Any thoughts or opinions on when I should expect to get back on the bike? I see a specialist next Tuesday
I concede riding on Sunday may have been a bad idea.
I am positively going mad with months of training going down the drain in this time

[vander]

It depends how the fracture is healing and if on the bike you are doing anything for it. Little toes often isnt so bad (depending on where the fracture is) but with some support I would be back on the trainer pretty quick and road 4-6 week mark. The thing about the cycling shoes is the compression may be a little bit hard for it to handle.

Sharp pains are common with a fracture. Swelling lasting around 2weeks is pretty common (though you may notice its a bit more swollen when you do stuff on it). Fractures just take a while. If you were in a boot you could be back on the trainer very quickly. I wonder how it would go on the trainer without cycling shoes (without the compression). It would be a little trial and error thing. Sorry I dont want to say too much without actually seeing it.

[Rex]

Thanks for your reply.

I think you're right about the compression - my Giro Empires are a nice snug fit.

I'll buy some flat pedals today to see how I go on my trainer with some sneakers.

[RhapsodyX]

I broke my little toe years ago (dislocated & split the phalange bone in front of the metatarsal, front-to-back). It was about six weeks before it stopped hurting every time I hit a bump in the road. I just spent stupid amounts of time on the crit track riding round in circles.

I also raced a crit the day after breaking it. And placed.

[Rex]

If you had your time again, what would you do differently?

Walking is getting easier now which has been a big frustration for me.
However with my trip to Adelaide to the TDU less than 6 weeks away, not sure if I can risk losing any more fitness.

I've lost nearly 30CTL in 2 weeks

[RhapsodyX]

Nothing, really. Although I did ask if it would be easier just to remove the toe. I just kept it taped to the next toe, didn't wear shoes at work, it eventually healed.

[human909]

Surely sacrificing 4 weeks of riding is worth avoiding permanent damage?

Unfortunately for me I didn't realise my dislocated toe was also broken... So I kept active for a month until I decided to get it x-rayed. The result was 9months of pain rather than 4 weeks of immobilisation and permanent joint damage. Sure its only my second toe, not a huge deal. But do yourself a favour and give you foot time off to heal.

It does depend on the injury and type of activity. Toe can take a while to heal due to lower blood supply.

[madmacca]

Even when injured, you don't have to do much to maintain your fitness. Even 15 km recovery rides can keep your cycling muscles in reasonable condition, and you can get back to where you were in just a couple of weeks once the toe is healed. Using a trainer is a good idea, as it takes some of the shock and vibration of the road out. Also, swimming might allow you to continue to work on you cardio-vascular fitness - obviously not as good as sport-specific training, but surely better than just parking your butt on the couch (and sounds like it might be better for your mental health too).

Human makes a good point about blood supply too - keep it warm (thick socks, but make sure the rest of you is warm too), and regularly wiggle the toes to keep the blood supply going - blood supply = delivery of raw materials for healing.

Obviously with all of this, you should be listening to what your specialist says.

[Rex]

Came back from Adelaide this week after 632km in 5 days.

Happy to say my toe didn't bother me, however occasionally there was a slight niggle so I kept my Panadol & Nurofen up just to keep it at bay.
However there was one afternoon after a massive day in the saddle I returned to the hotel, took off my cycling shoes and I next endured about 30mins of excrutiating pain in my toe until I fell asleep from the days exhaustion.
Luckily I woke up an hour or so later and it was x1000 better and it didn't bother me again after that.

Glad I took the 2 weeks off after I fractured my toe back in late November, but it was a good learning curve of looking after yourself and giving your body time to heal when it needs it because there is always time to bounce back afterwards.