"After breaking the hip, getting married went from idea to done deal in three to four weeks; it was perfect"

A rainbow-jerseyed Martyn Irvine leads the scratch race at last weekend's National Track Championships in Dublin. He won that title and also took gold in the individual pursuit as part of his comeback from fracturing his hip in the Tour of Taiwan back in March.

Martyn Irvine has had an absolutely whirlwind six months; becoming World Champion and World No 1 on the track, getting married, breaking his hip and coming back again. The period since his World Championships gold medal scratch race ride and silver medal win in the pursuit on the same afternoon has been tough. After the elation of taking the title in Minsk in February, he crashed in the Tour of Taiwan in March while riding for his team Unitedhealthcare, breaking his hip. He has since been through months of rehab and while he is back racing again, he is still not completely over the ill effects of his injury, as he tells us in his latest dispatch.

I just had a read of my last blog and let me tell ya, that was a long time ago. Since then I've broken my hip, recovered, got married, got back on the road and picked up a few more national titles on the track.

From reading the last blog all the way back in March, I reckon I was 24hrs away from crashing in the Tour of Taiwan and breaking myself up. Little did I know how my season was gonna turn around.

Let’s just say I had an experience in Taiwan after breaking the hip; there were a lot of obstacles that I had to figure out. Thanks to a few people in the right places I was able to get the surgery done, flights booked and get home as soon as possible.

Once home, I was so relieved. The flights to get home were a disaster - so uncomfortable, moving the slightest bit was a challenge. The initial weeks at home were all new to me. After worrying about blood clots for a few days it was the basic things that were so hard.

If I was a horse I'd have been shot for sure! If Grace wasn't there with me I really don't know what I would have done. I'm willing to put money on the fact that I was even more of a pain in the ass to live with. She said nothing though and helped me with everything, and I mean everything...

An X-ray from when I got home, still freaks me out!

With the weeks ticking passed I started to get a bit more mobile but I was becoming lazy. Half of me wanted to be back racing yesterday and the other half was happy to sit, eat and sleep.

The two most depressing things were seeing a whole road season tick past and watching my left leg shrink. I would have a mini panic every now and then but I soon snapped out of it and got on with it.

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As soon as I could move my leg I got in the pool. First off, I used the rehab suite in the Royal Hospital, Belfast. I juggled that with a lot of time in the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland in Jordanstown. I would have been lost without their direction and would probably be months behind in terms of recovery.

As I sit here and type this now, I'm still not fully fit if I'm honest; walking down stairs is uncomfortable and I find myself doing a fall-run down them; works though.

As I went through the motions of rehab and trekking to SINI and back, Grace and myself had a brainwave; what about getting married?

Feel free to laugh, we still do. Express weddings are us!

There were a few things going on in our lives that made our decision easy, not to mention being nearly four years engaged. It just seemed the right thing to do and for all the right reasons it made perfect sense. All the people we wanted to be there were there and I loved every bit of it.

This is where I have to thank Grainne Brookfield. She never once thought we were a couple of nut jobs; she entertained every idea/u-turn/decision we made.

The day itself was awesome, I look back and smile.

It went from an idea to done in three to four weeks and I wouldn't change a thing. Our ceremony was a simple one in Joe and Breda's garden (Grace's folks). It was perfect, just what we were looking for and we owe them one, a big one.

I'd like to thank everyone who turned up and made it the day it was. Grainne and Mike (her loving husband:) put on a brilliant show that night and Joe showed us how awesome he is on the guitar. In my eyes the whole thing was perfect.