Took a hit from a big oaf playing ultimate frisbee over the weekend, looks like I cracked a rib or two. As far as I can tell it's just really uncomfortable. Any advice? I put in a decent 10 miles on it the day after it happened. It wasn't pretty but it didn't slow me down. I'm trying for a tempo now, I'll check this when I come back (if I come back?)
I'd think if you are able to run you did not break or crack a rib. Maybe just bruised?
I sure hope so - that really hurt. Apparently I'll have to pay dearly for any sustained running under six minute pace. I thought it was a fracture because of some self-diagnosis medical website that described what I'm feeling: pain when breathing along with a basic inability to take a full breath, sensitive to pressure directly on the hurt part of my rib, and pain in the same area when I push on my sternum. If it's just a bruise will it heal quickly? I'm not going to be able to do any kind of real workout until this thing mellows out. I have a pretty high pain threshold, but that tempo run was very unpleasant.
I'm running with a broken rib right now, although its likely almost healed at this point. My doctor said there's no harm in doing what you were going to do anyways aside from the discomfort. It will be annoying, and will likely be more problematic with efforts that get you breathing heavy. The diagnosis for a broken versus bruised rib are the same. The only thing you can do is wait for it to heal. Only cause for alarm is if its shattered and the area is not smooth. Otherwise, go at it as best you can. It gets much more manageable after a couple of weeks.
Thanks man. It's definitely not a real break, if it's fractured at all. Definitely hurts pretty bad though - two or three times every mile my body would involuntarily take a big breath to catch up with oxygen, and it made me groan out loud each time
I fractured a rib almost 8 weeks ago (~very hard coughing!). I couldn't do any intense workouts for 3 weeks, but had no problem with easy, long runs putting in 90-110 mpw. I was aggressive the first week-- had a trainer at our university tape the whole side, and was getting e-stim and ice every day. The pain was completely gone after 3 1/2 week (although the knot took longer to go away), and I was able to start doing progression runs and eventually intervals. I'm getting ready to do my first marathon this weekend. My best advice is-- don't do anything intense until you stop feeling pain. How fast you heal is a matter of how healthy you are-- your diet, your sleep, age, your fitness, not stressing too much, not doing anything intense until you're healed.
I actually believe the light running helped me heal quicker-- they said it would take 6 weeks to heal, but I felt much, much better each week and with each run. Helps increase the blood flow to the area and keep the muscles from getting tight.
That makes a lot of sense. I don't want to kill my mileage (about 80/week) but I guess I'll have to back off on the intensity for a while. I was hoping to run a couple fast 5ks in a month or so but maybe I'll just have to bag that and skip to the preperations for the long races in the fall.