I got a stress fracture in my 2nd metatarsal roughly 2.5 months ago. A visit to an orthoepedic and an xray showed a crack in my 2nd metatarsal. After a week or 2 in a boot and another 4-5 weeks off of no running and some cross training (6.5 weeks total) my doctor cleared me to run again after a follow up xray showed the area was healed.
When I began running again about 1 month ago I alternated 3 miles every other day for a week then moved up to a few days on and then a day or two off of 4 miles. 2 weeks after coming back my foot began to ache a little so I went back to alternating running with cross training every other day for a week. My foot felt fine so I started this week going
6 4 6 off 6 4 off, all on grass and a little 15 minute walk jog on pavement tuesday and thursday morning.
Now my foot started to ache a little but I can stand on my left foot (the injured one) and jump up and down with relatively no pain. My foot is pretty tight though and slightly larger than my healthy foot.
Could someone give me a physiological response for what my foot is going through? If you have gone through coming back from a stress fracture how long was it before you could run 6 or 7 days a week without your foot getting tight or aching? It's really frustrating because I was planning on building a big base for my senior year of cross country. I plan to take the next couple of days off and cross train to give my foot a rest. Please help me out here.