Grieve. It helps to leave lots of room to be sad, feel disappointed, and also make internal space all the other less palatable emotions like shame or internalized ableism or self blame. Then, you can find either workarounds for the activities you miss, or other activities that fill those needs and interests for you. But letting yourself be really upset, without modulating it or rushing through it, is an important step. You’re also going to find yourself annoyed at people you know who make unrealistic suggestions or surprised at those who don’t have the capacity for compassion that you expected - make room to be annoyed and sad about that too. There are a lot of bright and lovely things that won’t have changed in your life, and other things that you might not have considered or encountered until after your life changed, but for the love of all of those things, i implore you to take a minute get very sad and be very angry. Trying to skip that step in my own life is something i regret - positivity becomes very exhausting when it’s a band aid on something you’re not letting yourself feel. Also, reading the writings and social media posts of people who have had similar experiences to yours can help a lot, both in terms of emotional processing and practical tips for dealing with that particular injury or issue. All bodies fall apart, but most of us are not ever taught how to deal with it and there’s a lot of weird emotions that come up. Highly recommend looking for memoirs, websites, social accounts, and whatever else you can find that pertains directly or tangentially to your experiences. I wish you all the best in navigating this.

I would suggest talking to a therapist to help you learn some tools to help you mentally adapt. Once you have the skill set to adapt to the mental changes, adapting to the changes in your physical abilities is easier.

Skating used to be whole life, my right leg has been held together by a metal rod for the last 7 years now.

Like you, it was caused by an avoidable miskate that was my own fault. I can still get on skates (though that took about 3 years) and I’m limited to doing that for about half an hour and can’t move fluidly.

For me the solution wasn’t to do everything I could to continue doing the thing I loved, but rather to let it go. These days I ride (small, quiet) motorbikes, walk my dogs, and have recently taken up archery.

Had I not broken my leg there’s a diversity of experiences I’d have missed out on, because I was enraptured with The Thing. There’s more to the world than one single hobby!

If you have close friends and family, do try and talk through how you’re feeling with them, and think about seeing a therapist - these sorts of limitations are hard to adapt to for everyone!

I wish you good luck in whatever sort of adventures you have next :-)

Find another way. There are always options.

CGOB has plenty of journals from people riding 15-25 mile days, people on recumbents, people on trikes. People are even starting to tour on ebikes nowadays.

I got fucked up by cancer. I experimented with options to find what works. Am I gonna win the Great Divide? Nope, sure won’t. Can I ride the route if I wanted? Yup, with some modifications I can totally do it.

Find your modifications and your options. Kick some ass.

Dumb question, but have you explored recumbent bikes, trikes, electric bikes, motorcycles?

If you enjoy the great outdoors, and the bicycle was a mechanism to get out there, there are many options for continued enjoyment.