5th stress injury in 3 years

Did you run mostly on pavement and track?

Are you Man or Woman?

Take off your shoes. You're destroying your legs.

Bare feet will help you run with much less impact.

I think the 10% rule is far too aggressive. Anytime I have built up my mileage that aggressively I end up injured or on the verge of injury. I would recommend more like a 5% increase or even less. Jack Daniels recommends doing 3 weeks at a given mileage and then increasing by the number of workouts. For example if you do 3 workouts a week and start at 30 miles your build up will look like: 30, 30, 30, 33, 33, 33, 36, 36, 36. I think this is perhaps a bit conservative but it will err on the side of healthy running if that is your main concern. If you have been running 40 miles a week in the past with no issues you could probably build to that from 25-30 miles at about the 10% rule but use a more conservative strategy when building to mileage that you don't have adequate experience with.

HMMMMMM wrote:

Are you Man or Woman?

man

SS\ wrote:

Did you run mostly on pavement and track?

This summer I tried running almost exclusively on trails. Before, it was mixed.

What's the color of your eyes?

What is your diet like?

foodie wrote:

What is your diet like?

Pretty healthy, eat ice cream once a week, lots of fruits, veggies, and chicken, eggs, fish daily.

vvinjuryprone wrote:

foodie wrote:

What is your diet like?

Pretty healthy, eat ice cream once a week, lots of fruits, veggies, and chicken, eggs, fish daily.

any yogurt, milk or cheese?

Though you are kind of young, you can justify getting a bone density test. rule out osteoperosis.

Are you sure they were stress fractures, not shin splints or tendon issues?

Ie did a doctor diagnose you or did you diagnose yourself?

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Are you sure they were stress fractures, not shin splints or tendon issues?

Ie did a doctor diagnose you or did you diagnose yourself?

Definitely stress fractures. 3 on MRI, one showed up on x-ray.

vvinjuryprone wrote:

Free_the_thigh wrote:

Are you sure they were stress fractures, not shin splints or tendon issues?

Ie did a doctor diagnose you or did you diagnose yourself?

Definitely stress fractures. 3 on MRI, one showed up on x-ray.

get a bone density test.

BamBam wrote:

vvinjuryprone wrote:

Definitely stress fractures. 3 on MRI, one showed up on x-ray.

get a bone density test.

Ya I agree. That isn’t normal. You need more tests done to figure out the cause. Your training isn’t it.

What do your training weeks look like, including paces?

Among other recommendations, it's also worth getting your vitamin D checked.

Also, once you are healthy again, it wouldn't hurt to start doing some lower leg strengthening stuff - weighted calf raises, shin strengthening, inversion/eversion work with a band/wobble board work. The theory behind this is that this work might strengthen your bones, and the extra muscular development could also support your bones and take some of the stress off of them. And it certainly won't make things worse.