What's the longest you've ever been on the injured list?

2 years - hamstring

2 years - achilles bursitis

1 year - addiction recovery

1 year - burn out

who takes a year off for addiction recovery? are you being facetious and referring to your running addiction, or were you actually addicted to a substance?

Howard - You and me both with the ischial tuberosity. Although yours has been going on about 15 years longer than mine. Just when I think my hamstring's feeling better and I start running, I realize how screwy the rest of my leg has gone. IT problems. Knee problems. Glute and hip flexor issues. It's hard to know what's the cause and what's the effect any more. All from a hamstring injury I didn't care of properly. I'm at 2.5 years.

Howard - You and me both with the ischial tuberosity. Although yours has been going on about 15 years longer than mine. Just when I think my hamstring's feeling better and I start running, I realize how screwy the rest of my leg has gone. IT problems. Knee problems. Glute and hip flexor issues. It's hard to know what's the cause and what's the effect any more. All from a hamstring injury I didn't care of properly. I'm at 2.5 years.

I sunk into substance abuse, like Dick Beardsley, if you know what I mean.

girl who runs wrote:

For people who have had to take extended periods of time off of training AND cross training (anything that works the lungs basically), have u ever made a successful comeback? I know it's going to take a while, but let's say I get these injuries better by June 1st and I start training (with no fitness at all), do you think by October I could be back to where I was? (70-80 miles a week, 17:20 5k)

How long does it take to go from zero fitness to peak fitness? Obviously less time in an athlete who had trained and was there in the past, right?

If you want to be BACK, you must first forget about a timeline. How can you predict something without even really knowing what is the matter? Your sole focus should be upon putting your body into the prime position to heal and recover...then, after you are healed, concern yourself with a timeline....otherwise, it might all be in vain.

I have seen more than a few runners develop injuries and never fully recover always trying to get back...so they prolonged their injuries and dragged out the frustration and after a while the light at the end of the tunnel goes black and career over--a major reason why so many college runner never develop.

I suggest this injury is a gift to learn patience to better understand the love you have for running...give your body the gift of healing before you demand it work before it truly can handle it. In the meantime, you can redefine yourself--your technnique, your flexibility, your visualization, your studies, your personal knowledge, your diet, etc. Find what level of physical activity you can handle and go from there...maybe it's yoga or something.

So that when you DO return, you will return a stronger, more profoundly developed athlete, person, being, with a greater inner force, greater awareness of your body, more within yourself.

Remember, priorities must be set...first recover, then worry about training. Don't confuse the order so that the first priority never completes.

Good luck!

5 months- insertional achilles tendonitis

time off, physical therapy, rehab exercises, and finally orthotics helped me finally get rid of the pain. it's taken 9 months to get within 34 seconds of my 5k track pr. still a lot of work to do, but i'm healthy and able to train at the same volume and intensity as i used to.

finding the root cause is the key to getting healthy. if i had just taken time off and kept trying to come back, i'd still be injured.

Have had PF for 8 months now (although I am still running). Longest I have had completely off, was a month in the middle of track season senior year with a hamstring injury.

I didn't run for 18 years. Got injured in college. Tried to run every once in a while but could not get over 1 mile without problems. Turned out to be extremely tight psoas muscles.

After getting back and running 2 years, I had an accident at work and haven't run in 16 months. I don't expect to run until next year.

shin splints man! wrote:

What's the longest time period that you've been unable to run due to injury? This includes the off-and-on period that most people go through at the beginning of a chronic injury. Also, were you able to make a full comeback and reach your previous level of competance?

I've been out for 16 months and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

Injured Dec 2001, a few months after a 4:27 mile.

Could not run until Summer 2002, and all running from then until early 2006 was gradually built up, with many holes, stbacks and issues.

4:45 mile 2003, 4:38 mile 2004, 4:33 mile 2005....planned on sub 4:30 in 2006, but other injuries occurred early 2006. Still, the 4:33 after nearly 4 years of issues was pretty good, considering 4:27 pre-injury.

I'm 44 now.

Summary: Patience / belief / determination = you CAN get back!

Hi Luc, actually that ischial tuberosity & my PRESENT problem, piriformis are separate things, different legs.My ischial (h-string) deal went on for 2 yr. in that time I was still able to train, race, but with appallingly disappointing results..see I turned 40 & wanted badly to put a few smartass newbie master runners back where they belong, behind me. Put up with a lot of discomfort etc. Finally 2 yr. later, it healed up, not a big deal any more. But this piriformis (other leg), since 1994/95 has been a low grade factor tho' not really a big issue(biomechanical compensating from h-string?) but now is a major impediment to my running since last year!Presently, now able to train but like I'm handicapped....so....no races, no social runs, only slow joggy type running, anything a tad faster will set it back. So, don't train with the club any more, not that I ever did much of the time.Hope your ischial tuberosity one day gets better same as my hip issue will one day too!!

Luc wrote:

Howard - You and me both with the ischial tuberosity. Although yours has been going on about 15 years longer than mine. Just when I think my hamstring's feeling better and I start running, I realize how screwy the rest of my leg has gone. IT problems. Knee problems. Glute and hip flexor issues. It's hard to know what's the cause and what's the effect any more. All from a hamstring injury I didn't care of properly. I'm at 2.5 years.

Haven't run a step for 9 months. Crushed nerve in forefoot, possibly caused by fat pad atrophy after a cortisone for bursitis. Expected recovery 2 to 5 years.

It really stinks when you love to run and you get told 'find a new sport'

As of next month it'll be 35 years and counting.

When I could walk without a limp again (~1.5 years), I eventually got into walking races--not that I was any good in them (if you can't run, you can't really racewalk IMO), but they let me preserve an illusion of athleticism. They also gave me a huge respect for the guys who can actually racewalk. Jesus those are tough races--50km of "ow."

mr cripple wrote:

I didn't run for 18 years. Got injured in college. Tried to run every once in a while but could not get over 1 mile without problems. Turned out to be extremely tight psoas muscles.

After getting back and running 2 years, I had an accident at work and haven't run in 16 months. I don't expect to run until next year.

Up to almost 3 years now. Back for more therapy. I think scar tissue is an issue now.

hallux rigidus, and I'm done indefinitely.

no big deal, there are bigger and better things.

3 years injured on and off. several times going months without training during that time. a couple times i've had short lived stints of training that lasted a couple months before coming down with another injury. but things are finally looking like i might be coming out of this terrible cycle. crossing my fingers. not much advice, unlesss its the same injury, then just figured out what you can do to avoid it. for me its been all different types of injuries that pop up even doing just like 30 miles a week easy.

A little more than 2 years now since I've been decently in racing shape. That's not counting the 2-3 years I ran with an injury.

shin splints man! wrote:

What's the longest time period that you've been unable to run due to injury? This includes the off-and-on period that most people go through at the beginning of a chronic injury. Also, were you able to make a full comeback and reach your previous level of competance?

I've been out for 16 months and there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

Wow, does it ever hurt to see this post. Another 16 months later I'm even worse off than before, and will never run again. This sucks so much.

Have you tried minimalism? Most of my injuries were in my tibia until I switched to flats and the pain stopped. However, I got too excited and transitioned to flats too soon so now I have a broken foot. The good thing is that my shins stopped hurting though. Like I said, I do not blame the flats for my foot stress fracture, I just ran too fast, too much, too soon, on probably too much concrete. Good luck.