Posts Tagged ‘stress fracture’
It’s been about five official weeks in recovery mode. My last run was April 31 and my next run can’t come soon enough!
I had a check-in with the doc last week and he said everything is progressing well. He wanted me to wait SIX MORE WEEKS before we talk about getting me back to running, but I bargained him down to four, so I see him again on June 26 and hope at that time to be able to add back in some running. In the meantime, I’ve been spending lots of time at the Presidio Y recumbent biking, spinning, AMT Trainer-ing and swimming.
I hope to step up the endurance crosstraining and drop a few pounds (see Rob’s post about our 90-day sprint), so that once I get back to running, it’s just a matter of getting my legs back up to the task. With any luck, I have my fingers crossed for a leisurly jog of the SF Marathon second half, but I’ll solidify those plans once I get a few runs in.
In the meantime, I’m playing personal chef and nutritionist for Rob, and, what with being unemployed, will be sure to share that with you all in daily updates.
So, the San Francisco Marathon won’t be happening for me this year. I got the news last Monday that my hip pain is, indeed, a stress “fracture” (more specifically, a stress reaction on its way to a fracture.) And likely my left tibial pain is one, too, but they didn’t MRI it because it will heal while waiting on the femur, regardless. So, this means no running or impact activity at all for about 3 months. Ugh! Boo!
The good news is that it’s not a femoral neck stress fracture (the link above is specific to femoral neck fractures, but I included it because it had the best explanation of a stress fracture I could find.) So, I’m thankful that I have something that’s not likely to “complete” while I’m walking around or cause me to need surgery, but I’m still super bummed and trying to get back to my usual chipper self. To add to that… I was laid off yesterday, so I now have a whole lotta time and can’t train! Double whammy!
Let me walk you through what a recovery week is looking like for me.
Just saw Tuesday’s episode of Biggest Loser last night and one of the contestants was diagnosed with the same thing that I am going in for MRI tomorrow to rule out– a femoral neck stress fracture.
Not at all coincidentally, earlier in the episode, they showed a recap of this person bounding across the finish line of a half marathon they made them run after only, what, 6-8 weeks on the ranch? (To boot, she ran it on a basketball court, which just seems to be begging for a one-sided tweak of some sort!)
I clearly remember thinking even before the injury was revealed how unwise it was that they had them do that, and how surprised I was that nobody has been injured from it– especially since I, a 25+-mile-a-week runner for closing in on a year now and 100+ pounds her junior, am going in for an MRI for a “too much too soon” injury for running in a far more responsible manner at far lower a weight.
Yeah, yeah, so… I broke my foot. Technically, I have a “stress fracture of the second metatarsal.” Which I’m thrilled to report is also called the “Beckham Bone” after one David Beckham who broke his in a slide tackle trying to win the World Cup. I just broke mine being a dumbfuck.
Here’s the thing… everything you read says, “Don’t increase running by more than 10% of total mileage per week.” “Yes, but I am doing so WELL! Certainly such rules don’t apply to ME!” I think I might have even read something that said, “Even if you are doing well and don’t think this rule applies to you, IT DOES!” It’s not like I intentionally packed on mileage, but I did exceed the recommended rate of increase, and now I’m paying for it.
So, let me put it this way… I have magical powers and can tell that YOU, yes YOU dear reader, should not increase your mileage by more than 10% per week, no matter how great you feel. Trust me. Jesus passed me a note in study hall with your name on it.
So, my left foot has been hurting pretty badly since I went for a massage a few weeks ago and the guy kinda squeezed it funny. (Really? “Squoze” isn’t a real word? Are you kidding me?) It’s been bugging me since then, but I’ve been running on it OK- no pain during, but pain after. My hip is still a little twingy from when I irritated it on the clutch of the Subaru, but it really bothered me last night.