I have a tibial stress fracture. I give up on distance running.

What's 25 "productive" miles a week? You should run more than that if you want to improve, not sure if 25 productive miles means 50 with 25 of them quality miles..

Seriously? Have you had an x-ray or self-diagnosed?

larvae wrote:

What's 25 "productive" miles a week? You should run more than that if you want to improve, not sure if 25 productive miles means 50 with 25 of them quality miles..

Dude, I can't even run 50 miles per week without getting injured. My body isn't built for it.

You're running wrong then. Either you have shit form, stomp, run on the wrong surfaces Something is wrong.

Unless your feeble body really is just that brittle...

I feel ya. Every time I run more than 35miles a week, I get hurt. Achilles stuff, tibial stress fractures, etc. Luckily low mileage can work pretty well. I rarely run longer than 35min, but I do a lot of strides afterwards and often even during my runs. My hard days are hard, and my easy days very easy and short. I'm basically only training 3 times a week (3 hard days).

3:48 1500m so far, which is nothing special, but I'm happy with it.

Randy Oldman wrote:

Seriously? Have you had an x-ray or self-diagnosed?

I've had previous tibial stress fractures. I know the symptoms.

Drink milk you girl. 50 miles?!

Sprinters don't get stress fractures?

Don't load up on calcium, it will only make things worse. Instead check your diet for magnesium content. Magnesium deficiency causes all kinds of problems including weak bones.

Check your tap water company's mineral content too. The DEQ should have it on record. If you don't drink tap water, start.

Please don't give up on the dream Jamin, I had a friend who came back from a stress fracture to run higher mileage and set PRs in every event. all you need to do is get a good set of workouts to prevent yourself from getting injured again. I still think that sub-15 in the 5k is in the near future for you.

Best of luck

Bad Wigins wrote:

Don't load up on calcium, it will only make things worse. Instead check your diet for magnesium content. Magnesium deficiency causes all kinds of problems including weak bones.

Check your tap water company's mineral content too. The DEQ should have it on record. If you don't drink tap water, start.

Bad Wigins, you're one of my favorite posters.

Cubism Cubed wrote:

Please don't give up on the dream Jamin, I had a friend who came back from a stress fracture to run higher mileage and set PRs in every event. all you need to do is get a good set of workouts to prevent yourself from getting injured again. I still think that sub-15 in the 5k is in the near future for you.

Best of luck

Bro, I've accepted the reality that my muscular-skeletal system is not built for handling the impact of distance running. I should've stuck to short stuff, like I did up until a month or two ago. What a waste! Right now I could've been continuing to build my speed. Big mistake to try cross-country, which I suck at anyways.

You're musculoskeletal system should respond and adapt to the stress you put it through, if you apply the proper amount of load at the right pace. Obviously, since you are injured, you applied to much force at once.

Stress fractures are caused by a low-impact-high volume strain on your bones. I don't think that doing 50 or so miles a week is injuring you, it is doing 50 miles a week to early that is injuring you. When you recover, you should very very slowly add mileage to your training. Even if it is adding 2-3 miles a week, apply your stressors slowly. Make sure to weight train at a proper load as well.

coach comments nicely wrote:

You're musculoskeletal system should respond and adapt to the stress you put it through, if you apply the proper amount of load at the right pace.

The problem is that the only way to figure out the "proper amount of load at the right pace" is to experiment, and all the failed experiments result in not being able to run for a period of time.

You seem like a scrawny guy that gets no love from the ladies (or guys). Maybe you need to get into a crossfit gym? You'll get a lot stronger and faster there, and will get people wanting to date you and bed you.

I was in the same place as you once. 6 stress fractures in my tibias throughout college. Couldn't run more than 25 miles per week before getting injured. Actually, every day they hurt! I was a 4:16 high school guy as well..

My trainers were crap...the doctors were crap...no one tried to find the solution to why it was happening. I just accepted that my muscular-skeletal system was not built to handle the running. Swear to god...I said the same thing.

I graduated and decided they had to be a reason why this was happening. Looking back, I wish I would have been smarter to figure it out on my own.

Anyway, I tried many things all at once...

More calcium and vitamin D

Started doing heavy squats to increase bone density

came back with a slow progression running program

Deep tissue self massage to break up scar tissue

Took ZMA

Blah Blah Blah. It all seemed to help...but it wasn't until one day that I realized about that other thing I was doing too...I switched my shoes to minimal shoes. I went from some bulky motion control shoe to a mid-level minimal shoe..,

That was the answer for me! However, sometimes my shins would still get sore. I was now running 50-60mpw (2011)...back running 4:16 and fast 5ks. When my shins would act up, I would go run barefoot on the football turf...sometimes 10 miles in circles. NO PAIN. It went away right then.. I was shocked.

Now, I wear a zero heal to toe shoe or whatever. That was the direct answer. The high heal was killing me. I wear Altras, Nike Free, and NB Minimus.

I'm not saying this is the answer...but I just wish I could go back and do this in college.. who knows what would have happened. Good Luck. If you are serious and want some more help...let me know... I'm willing to exchange an email.

Jamin - By the way, I said the same thing senior year..."I'm just going to run 25mpw and race the 800". But come on, man! You are probably running incorrectly and you are still going to suffer even on 25mpw. You don't want to hold yourself down to that. There IS a reason this is happening. The last doctor I saw senior year told me "this just isn't the sport for you". He said " I know you are on scholarship, so just finished it out and be done". I'm thinking "you're a doctor and you seriously just said that?".

Don't lose hope.

Yep, it's the biomechanics of your shoes that's leveraging

the stress through your tibia.

However, 50 miles a week isn't distance running.

I knew a guy that ran sub 4 mile on less than that. He was

gifted.

fred wrote:

Yep, it's the biomechanics of your shoes that's leveraging

the stress through your tibia.

Biomechanics? I didn't know my shoes were alive.

However, 50 miles a week isn't distance running.

I knew a guy that ran sub 4 mile on less than that. He was

gifted.

I have more modest goals. I want to run 1:56/3:57/4:15 next year. I can do that with 2 track workouts a week, a few easy runs (like 7:30-7:45 pace), supplemented by a ton of cross-training and a focus on weight control. In a world where stress fractures didn't exist, I could get to that time more easily, by running a ton. My actual plan is very time-consuming. Believe me -- I wish I could just head out the door for 10 miles every day. That would be a more efficient route to getting faster.