I'm currently laid up in bed reading cycling magazines, watching the Bellville Rondezvous and eating bacon sandwiches after having had a hernia repaired yesterday. It sounds ideal, but I'm looking out the window at the almost perfect riding weather and wanting to get back out on the velocipide.
I was just wondering if anyone has had a hernia done, and how long it kept them off the bike?
It's my 40th a week today and the good lady wife has bought me a Planet X Kaffenback frame and forks, but I can't build or ride it yet. 🙁

I had a open bilateral inguinal hernia repair last mid-June.

Post-op my surgeon said I could ride gently to work after two and a bit weeks – if only for the reason that I had no other way of getting to the office.
I was told to take it gently and to stop if it hurt – I pushed up the hill for the first few days. Also used a Brompton for the first week to reduce the need to lift my leg over the cross bar.

After three and a half weeks I went for a spin on my road bike. In hindsight I did too much – 30 miles with an 800ft climb. I got half-way and ached like hell but had no choice but to carry on to get home. I started MTBing after 6 weeks and had no problem with this other than a loss of mojo and pain if I slammed my saddle into the scars. Ouch!

I found the best way to recover was to do some gentle exercise and then rest for a couple of hours before doing a bit more. I slept a lot too!
Chatting a while later to a friend who's a physio and cyclist he reckoned I'd got the recovery process spot on – gentle exercise stops lesions from forming, which is a big risk and causes a lot of pain.

At the end of August I set off on a hilly 6-day cycle tour of Northumbria. I aimed at 40-60 miles a day which caused no problems. Lack of strength and stamina was a bigger problem than hernia pain. Normally I'd aim at 60-80 miles a day but that would have been too much having lost three months of hard cycling (by my standards).

Oh – and riding a fixie ached for several months post-op, but again I think it may have been helping the recovery process.

Hope this helps – good luck with your recovery!
CB

Well the advice I had from the surgeon was to walk half a mile the day after the op and build up to walking 2 miles by a week after. This I did. Rode a bike at a week post op and 10 days post op rode 28 miles on the road at 9yr old pace then went up Pen y Ghent the next day. I didn't mountain bike until probably 3-4 weeks post op then just carried on as normal with running biking etc. I'm pretty fit normally.

I had one side keyhole mesh repair and was 39.

I found recovery to be incremental, ie not a daily improvement but suddenly significantly better every 2-3 days or so. I still get the odd bit of discomfort but most notably after a 37 mile fell race . . .

Good luck!

Helps a lot, thank you. I think it's about the sort of time frame I expected, too. Think I might build the old fixie up as well. Thank you.