Looking for some expert opinions on my current predicament. I had a stress reaction (MRI confirmed) in the cuneiform bone in my left foot in April and took time off to heal it, but it took until August to be able to run normally again because my foot was so messed up from the compensation due to the stress reaction. After a few 4 and 5 mile runs every other day I had pain in my right knee, which my PT said was either a torn meniscus or an irritated plica. I took three weeks off and it ended up just being the plica.
I ended up running 7 miles the first day back, and 5 on the next day at an easy pace on grass. Afterwards the arch area in my left foot started to feel tight kind of near where I had the cuneiform pain back in April. Stupidly, I ran through it and did 6 miles the next day and afterwards it really hurt to the point where I could barely walk. I ended taking seven weeks off and this past Monday I tried to run again. The first run was 1 minute run, 1 minute walk for 20 minutes. It didn't make the foot feel any worse and felt good other than a few tight moments. I took a day off and then ran today as the foot didn't feel any worse than it has been and did 1.5 minutes run, 1 minute walk for 20 minutes. Today wasn't super painful or anything during the run, but it felt worse than the first run. I could especially tell afterwards that my foot it started to feel like it did when I first hurt it.
During my time off the pain got better, but it kind of moved through my arch area on the medial side of my foot. It feels like it hurt anywhere from my navicular down to my cuneiform/beginning of metatarsals. It basically got to the point where it just felt tight and was somewhat of an ache. At first it hurt to dorisflex and invert my foot, but that pretty much went away by the time I started running. The last few weeks my foot has started to pop/crack when I take my first step when I wake up or when I get off the bike after riding for a while. It's not painful, just thought it might be worth it to mention.
During the seven weeks I took off from running I have been biking a ton. About 23-26 hours every week other than one week where I took five days off. I slowly built up to this since May, so I didn't just jump right into doing that much. Biking doesn't seem to hurt it ever. A few times it has been sore/tight, but it's never been painful. The foot also does the crack/pop thing when I stand up periodically during my rides. I have also been doing tons of foot strengthening with plantar flexion, dorisflexion, inversion, and eversion band strengthening. Also lots of foot core and arch exercises. I have had some graston done on the low leg muscles and on the plantar fascia. I have also done stim and low level laser therapy on the painful areas as well as ice massage and used KT tape. I've also been stretching my calves and rolling them out.
At first I thought I might have some sort of tendinitis, but after all of the therapy and rest the most likely thing seems to be a navicular stress fracture. I am considering another small run walk after another day off to see where things are at, but I don't want to just keep screwing up my foot. At this point I feel like I should stop biking all together and hopefully get an MRI. Just wondering if any of my symptoms match that. I know it's not as common of a stress fracture, but I know Wejo and some others on the boards have dealt with it, so I'd greatly appreciate any insightful feedback as to where I should go from here.