Eight weeks ago, I ran a 20-mile training run, at the end of which my leg was killing me. Almost seven weeks ago, I made my last attempt at running, then went to the doctor and got the dreaded tibial stress fracture diagnosis. The only way to heal such a stress fracture is to avoid any hard-impact exercise — such as running.
And so, despite the inevitable downward spiral into a pit of endorphin-lacking despair, I ceased all running. The pain gradually and steadily lessened. A couple weeks ago, I started talking about a test run, but I was still feeling occasional twinges of mild pain in my leg and knew it wasn’t ready. I’d already put in weeks of recovery, so I wasn’t about to jeopardize my progress.
A few nights ago I put on my running shoes and walked around the house. A month earlier, my leg protested the instant I tried wearing my running shoes, but this time it was OK. I even tried hopping up and down a few times on the injured leg. It didn’t seem to mind, but I wasn’t sure if maybe I’d felt a tiny twinge. I told myself that if nothing hurt, I’d run a maximum of half a mile on Sunday or Monday.
Today, Sunday, I put on my running shoes. Then I proceeded to wash all my windows (yes, took the screens off and cleaned them, too). The walking and standing on tip-toes felt fine. So I strapped on my Garmin GPS watch, switched it from biking to running mode, and set out down the street.
After a short warm-up walk, I began to jog, telling myself to go slow but let it feel natural. After exactly a quarter of a mile, I stopped and evaluated — did it hurt, did it feel weak, were there any twinges? The funny thing is that the only thing I noticed was a bruise I’d given myself falling off my bike while trying to learn new pedals. It’s near the stress fracture area, which is a ridiculous coincidence. I pressed all over the area of the stress fracture and honestly asked myself if it hurt. It did not. So I ran the next quarter mile and obediently followed my plan to stop at that point.
Four hours later, I don’t feel any pain. I’m actually trying to be a bit of a hypochondriac, because in this case it’s so much better to err on the side of caution. To that end, I’m not going to run tomorrow but instead get out on my bike. If I don’t feel anything amiss, I will let myself go on another test run Tuesday. Even if I pass that test with flying colors, I’m NOT going to let myself plan for the future until Wednesday, at the earliest. I love running too much to mess it up.
Oh, and do you think it helped that I wore my Operation Jack t-shirt today?
(No, I’ve never run for seven hours. I volunteered, as I mentioned in this blog post, and Sam blogged here.)
Meanwhile, tune in tomorrow for my weekend wrapup that might just include photos of a blindfold.
I’m hoping this goes through — thanks for looking at your spam settings for me
I just really wanted to comment you and encourage you as you recover from the heartbreak of your stress fracture and of course the physical pain too. I have just started running again after a YEAR off for chronic plantar fasciitis that finally became so bad that I not only couldn’t run, I couldn’t walk. Oops. I was training for a trail ultra (50 miler) and putting in 60 miles per week on uneven surfaces, which, in retrospect, made me and only me to blame for the condition I ended up in. But that didn’t stop the tears and the depression this last year. I am starting over. I will be smarter this time. And I know how scary and hard it is. Go Layla!
Thank you for the encouragement! The funny thing (OK, not funny, but I’m commenting while the coffee is still brewing) is that I think I need more trail running. I’m injury-prone, but I went for about a year with almost no injuries — and last winter and spring I ran a number of trail races. Now that I think I’m on the recovery side of things, I’m determined to get off the roads more. I’m also determined to get to some hills, because I live in flatland, and I hadn’t run hills in a while before I got injured, either. Cross training is key, too.
At any rate, I hope your plantar fascitis is gone for good. Taking a year off must have been brutal! Run safe and run strong!