first ride

I went on my first outdoors training ride since surgery. I'm rather terrified of making the thing come back by going too hard too soon. I had been working on my trainer, but it's not nearly as intense. I felt good the whole way, but it's clear I'm not nearly strong enough to race well. So that is the problem, I want to be able to race soon, and I don't want to have to get more surgery by going too hard too soon. I think the remedy will be to be sure and ride alone to remove the temptation to go too hard, as clearly the latter concern trumps the former. I wish I would have found a doc as described on certian internet sites who would have said do whatever doesn't hurt too much, and been right in doing so. It seems like the repair my doc may have done was similar to the repair described, but it's impossible for me to say, and I feel I had better respect my doctor's instructions as I'm of a mind that she's quite sharp, and she didn't have to take time out of her schedule to do this repair.