Hey Letsrun,
I am a college senior at a small DI school with modest PRs (8:29, 14:35, 30:44, 25:14 XC) who just developed a metatarsal stress fracture yesterday. I've been training around 70-80 MPW for the last few weeks after building up to that slowly since April. I take my easy days very easy (7:30/mi) and have only done a few tempos. Now it looks like I have to take 6-8 weeks off and basically start from zero for my senior track season.
I missed my last outdoor season because of a hip flexor strain, and indoors I ran in the 70-80 MPW range and managed to get my 3k PR before the injury. Last Fall I missed the month of August dude to an SI joint injury but still managed to compete (albeit poorly). My sophomore year, I missed all of indoor and outdoor due to an Achilles tendon microtear and a stress reaction in the same foot's talus bone. My 5k and 10k PRs are from my freshman year, which is the last time I could really train for any stretch of time. I haven't run an outdoor track race since 2016.
I haven't been able to go more than about 4 or 5 months of college without an injury that takes me out for anywhere from two weeks to 4 months. Every time I feel like I am on the cusp of a breakthrough (like I did a few days ago) the floor falls out from under me. Has anyone else gone through a rough few years of training like this? I have big dreams of running a Marathon OT qualifier, breaking 14 in the 5k, and running and racing for the rest of my life, but every time I have a setback like this it seems that these get further and further out of reach.
Is it stupid for me to keep trying to come back when maybe the universe is trying to tell me to just move on? I'd love to hear stories from people who have persevered through something like this and managed to run their best after getting out of the injury cycle. Running has been a huge part of my life for the last 8 years and I'd hate to walk away from the sport without knowing what I could've truly accomplished.