stress fracture

10-12 does seem long, ive only been told 6-8 before. especially if there is no pain walking, id play it by year and when it feels okay start up lightly.

i think your workouts depend on what you race but i woukld try to incorporate a few shorter more intense workouts. try the bike with a bit more resistance at a comfortable but fast cadence. the pool is great but again id try the odd shorter more intense workout.

depending on what you race, id try weights to strengthen the arms and core.

I think that the danger of the stress fracture is that people tend to "play it by ear." Its stops hurting after 3-4 weeks and people are like, "Oh, i can run again" only to reinjure the not yet healed fracture. 10-12 weeks is a long time - most are 6-8 weeks in healing time. Yet it totally depends on where the fracture is, some take a long while to heal.

Also, to speed up the healing process, ice it. This doesn't provide the same benefit as with soft tissue, but it will increase blood flow to that area. Also, cross training helps the healing because it, too, helps the blood flow.

If you have a navicular stress fracture, be very, very, careful!

It totally depends on how early you caught the stress fracture and where it's located. I've had 7 stress fractures and they've ranged from a metatarsal that only took 3 weeks of no running (biked with the boot on) to some femoral shaft stress fractures which have taken up to 12 weeks. So, it all depends, however, it seems that, even after 7, i always try to come back too soon and inevitably extend the time off period. Lesson, have some patience! Believe me, I know it's hard.

I had a stress fracture in my foot, second metatarsal (hte bone right on top, about 3 cm before your toe. It only took four weeks to completely heal, although my doctor said it would have only been three weeks had I not raced an 800 at our conference meet on the already fractured bone. If it is in your shin or your femur (thigh bone) the 6-8 week estimate sounds more realistic. Good luck with it and keep at it in the pool.

Yeah definitely be careful about the navicular fracture. I didn't quite take my own advice, and am sitting here right now with a cast on my right foot with a two inch screw through my navicular bone to help it heal. There goes my track season. It's just my luck that its about the slowest healing bone EVER!!! Anyway, I'll be slowly working my way back when my XC team is getting in shape so hopefully i'll be able to get into the flow again. Be careful....pull up a chair...you won't be running for a while.

I have had 12 over a three year period.....I never fully recovered until I started running for a different coach.

The only thing that kept me somewhat fit was swimming. If you are an efficient swimmer, you can get a great workout!Good luck

Ruby & lots and lots, are you guys healthy now? I've had four stress fractures in the last year and a half. Its very frusturating and I too have been way too impatient. I just wanted to know if you guys have been able to get back into it, train hard & run for a decent amount of time.

What does it feel like? I fear I may have a stress fracture in my left ankle.

On the phone I was told it was my ankle (inside....so I am assuming the tibia, but I will find out the correct terminology today). Pain wise (I think someone asked what a stress fracture feels like)....it feels like I pulled a muscle in my calf/ankle. I can run on it but I limp for the first 2 miles before I can actually stride out. Thanks for the advice.....I will do my best in not rushing back....at this point I think that will be my toughest problem (when I can run not to over do it right away and regress back)

Tibial stress fractures can heal as quickly as 5 weeks, but almost never take longer than 9 weeks. First, ice is NOT a good remedy to speed recovery for a stress fracture as it actually DECREASES blood flow to the area; use low heat or hot whirlpool. Deep tissue massage does increase blood flow. Another point that most people are unaware of is that it helps to DECREASE calcium intake during the first few weeks because high blood calcium levels can inhibit bone regeneration (it's a complicated system for bone regeneration that includes these cells that basically eat up old bone before new bone can be laid down - if too much calcium is in the blood the cells that eat up old bone won't do their job and the whole process slows to a screeching halt - that's why women with osteoporosis can't fix it with calcium alone, they need a drug that encourages cells to eat up old bone first). If you have access to a sports med place with electro magnetic treatments, do it (Dathan Ritzenhein healed in 4 weeks with that treatment). Pool running is great, but throw in some weight bearing (NOT jarring) exercise too - anything from weight training to elliptical workouts, or your legs will hate you when you start running again. Get checked for a leg length discrepancy (the shorter leg will get lower leg stress and the longer leg will have upper leg stresses). Take this down time as an opportunity to increase your cardiovascular fitness. Since you're not beating up your legs, you can get in at least twice the amount of workouts in a week as you could otherwise. I have a series of 8 workouts for the elliptical trainer over a 14 day cycle, but you can condense it to 10 days even. You can do them in the pool, I guess, if you wear a heartrate monitor. They're hard but you recover quickly without the pounding. I'm back running now for about 3 weeks (not a stress fracture but a pretty bad injury) and I'm limited by leg strength not fitness level. In fact, I'm more fit cardiovascularly than I've been in a long time because I worked my ass off (because I was so damn frustrated). I was getting off the elliptical or out of the pool so wasted that I was shaky and by the next morning I was fine. A mistake I made was not getting in some really long sessions, so long runs are going to take some time yet.