stress fracture STILL hurts??

I had the same thing and was reassured by my doc it was okay… so pushed through. A few years on and it’s become a chronic problem which stops me walking more than a 500m without flaring it up, let alone run. I’d recommend taking as long as it needs until you have NO symptoms whatsoever.

Phantom pain can continue for up to a year unfortunately.

Be cautious with the comeback, as it seems you are already doing. Do you have someone advising you on this plan or are you making it up as you go?

Had a sacral stress fracture last year. Took about 12 weeks off and slowly returned to running over a period of about 4 weeks to around 30km/week. Could still feel an occasional dull aching or tightness in lower back/glute after running sometimes which did worry me a bit . I've been running consistently pain free for 3 months now and have built to 80-100km a week.

I still sometimes have the same symptoms as described above, some of it I think may be "phantom pain" and some of it continued remodelling of the bone.

Just be conservative with your return, I spent a while just easy running before doing any hard workouts.

Doesn’t sound like phantom pain, rather like your injury hasn’t fully healed, so you should listen to your doc’s advice and to your body keeping in mind that pain is your body’s way of telling you to avoid doing something.

Stress fractures are often complicated because the pain is generally bearable. I had a tibia stress fracture last year and took 4 months off. Upon returning to running I brushed off the pain I had as phantom pain and I had a reoccurrence after just 4 easy grass runs.

The way to return to running after a stress fracture is to only do exercise that is pain free. If you experience 2/10 pain on your runs then you should take some more time off. It's also worth noting the bone takes a while to remodel and bone density takes a while to improve, meaning that the benefits your bone derives from a run can take a while to be seen, so continuously increasing the mileage day after day isn't advisable. I like to work in 3/4 week blocks, where I do the exact same amount of running each week for 3/4 weeks and then if I am still 0/10 on the pain scale I will progress it for the next block. Unfortunately, recovery from a stress fracture can be a long road, but the key is running with 0/10 pain.

Given where your at now, I actually wouldn't run at all, instead I would do plyometrics and strength work and then begin running after a couple weeks of that. The bone adapts to intense and unpredictable movements far better than just running (hence why runners typically have a very low bone density to other athletes).

It goes without saying, if your not on a vitamin d/calcium supplement you should strongly consider one. Diet is also important - both my stress fractures happened when I was in a calorie deficit.

If it still hurts it is not safe to run.

You will end up going around in circles.