Stress reaction (?) in foot?

Having been chronically injured, I can tell you that you have the correct approach. The question is, can you execute what you have proposed, or is it all talk?

Mentally, use this as an opportunity to learn. Go back over your training and see if there were warning signs you ignored. Come to practice. Do not isolate yourself. Use the team for support. You will come out of this stronger and wiser. You have to believe in yourself and grind through the process.

I wish somebody was around to tell me this when I was beat up and injured.

Good luck and chin up!

I've had 5 stress fractures, but none for 6 years now. Get in the gym and do what cross training you can. This sucks and I've never found it enjoyable. My gym had some exercise bike game that had simulated courses and kept track of your times. I could approach the leaderboard on the very toughest couple courses. See if you have something like that.

You have to find stuff outside of athletics to do. Books, video games, tv shows, etc. If you can get about without making your injury worse, explore your city, go to coffee shops and such. Take pictures for instagram. Its going to be an agonizingly long wait, but this is some stuff to kill the time.

This is a good thread for some ideas for exercise bike workouts:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1065781

Thanks so much, will definitley check them out!!

Thank you for the training and the outside of training advice. Some unrelated distractions and hobbies would definitley help right now. I am wondering if you ever identified an underlying cause for the multiple injuries?

Have you had a bone density test? If that is fine, how are your mechanics, strength, and alignment? Since you are running in college, I'd think that your trainers, coaches would have valuable information that could help you.

Ghosts of memories past wrote:

Having been chronically injured, I can tell you that you have the correct approach. The question is, can you execute what you have proposed, or is it all talk?

Mentally, use this as an opportunity to learn. Go back over your training and see if there were warning signs you ignored. Come to practice. Do not isolate yourself. Use the team for support. You will come out of this stronger and wiser. You have to believe in yourself and grind through the process.

I wish somebody was around to tell me this when I was beat up and injured.

Good luck and chin up!

I'd like to echo what this poster said. OP, as someone who was injured on and off through high school and college, I understand what you're going through, and it sucks.

Physically, your first priority should be rehabbing your foot and doing whatever strengthening exercises your doctor/PT has prescribed. That's the most important thing at this stage-you want to fix whatever imbalance that caused your injury so that it doesn't recur. Now for staying in shape, biking is good-you can definitely get in good workouts and simulate intervals pretty well. But there's no need to restrict yourself to that-you can mix it up with elliptical, pool running, swimming, etc. Really anything that gets your heart rate up and doesn't make your injury any worse. Change up the distance/intensity level from day to day too-that will do wonders for your sanity (though it sounds like you're already doing this). Of course it's not ideal, and you may have to dial back your original goals, but you can absolutely run well off of cross training. If it's any consolation, I ran a 5K PR my senior outdoor season after spending a good portion of the winter on the elliptical. I bet you can do the same.

Emotionally, I'll say it again: it sucks, but you're not alone. Like the quoted poster said, go to practice and hang out with your team as much as possible. I don't know how your practice is structured, but if you can, do your core/stretching/lift with your team. Bike outside if your situation allows it-nature is good. Get excited for your cross training workout days-a good workout is a good workout, regardless of whether it's running. Remind yourself that you are still working towards making yourself better every single day. You can use this time to make yourself better in other ways, too-find a good book, or a new hobby, or do something that interests you. I missed the competitive feeling of running, so I picked up chess. The most important thing is to not despair, stay positive but realistic, and keep fighting!

Best of luck to you, and stay strong :)

I have not had a bone density test, but the injury appears to be related to iron deficiency which I just recently had diagnosed. Theoretically, boosting my ferritin levels should help me prevent these issues in the future. But bone density might be something else to consider in the meantime, thank you!

Make sure you’re getting around 1500 mg of calcium, along with vitaminD, a day. The reason why I mentioned a bone density test, was because of the femoral neck stress fracture. If you can go see a good sport doc, especially one that works with runners, that would be the best thing.

I have been taking calcium but not Vitamin D! That is something I can ask about in upcoming appointments as well. I appreciate the advice, thank you.

Thank you for understanding how and why this is such a difficult experience. It's good to hear that you had a positive result from cross training!! I am sure this is a reflection of you being very dedicated, but I have talked to so many people who said that cross training didn't help them, so it is extrememly encouraging for me.

I am trying to spend time with the team as much as I can. Meals and study time aren't so bad; haven't made it though a practice yet without crying. I know this will take time.

I am trying to look for other things outside of training to occupy my time. (Such as reading all the posts on this website haha, but I think I would benefit from something disconnected to running as well.) I appreciate your advice and your thoughtfulness. Thank you

UPDATE: Looking like I will be out a month to 6 weeks total, so hopefylly running within the next 3-4 weeks as I have already taken some time off. Ramping up the cross training and trying to stay positive that I will be on the shorter end of the healing timeline! Does anyone know if walking (usually without pain, but occasional twinges) is likely to do more damage? My doctor has said no, but I am concerned about extending the healing proccess. Thanks!!

I’m glad you got some answers. If your doctor is a sports ortho or podiatrist, I’d trust him/her. Just remember, better to be overly cautious and take the full time off, as opposed to starting back a week early and then reinjuring it. Also, make sure the first weeks back are very conservative so that you don’t have any set backs. Did the doc give you any parameters with cross training?

I am supposed to stick to the bike and the pool for now, no erg or elliptical. They are thinking a month total, but since it is week 2 and I'm still feeling twinges, I cna't help but feel this is overly optimistic :(

Stick to the pool and bike. I’d be cautious about walking too much if you feel discomfort. Also ask about referred pain, I.e pain away from the injury site.

A quick update!

Hello everyone! I wanted to give some information as to where I am at in hopes of helping someone in the future.

I was out of running for exactly 1 month and 2 days for a stress reaction (possible fracture) in my r. foot per my orthopedist. I cross trained on the bike only with interval workouts a few times a week and easier biking between, trying to hit 6 days a week of training.

At my appointment, an x-ray showed sufficient bone remodeling for me to resume running at a gradual rate.

I started with 1 mile for two days, then 1.5 miles, then a day off. I have repeated this pattern for the past 3 weeks or so, and am now up to 5 miles and working in hills and tempo again! I was very happy to see that I had lost much less speed and endurance than I feared, so anyone cross training, please try and keep your hopes up!!!

I am trying to be as cautious as possible, and taking days off of running for ANY residual pain, but I believe within the next few weeks to a month I will be back to about 9 miles, my average daily run before injury, and will begin adding in a long run again.

Thanks to everyone for the support while I was out, it really meant a lot.

Thanks for the update, as I usually say - talent doesn't disappear!

The cross training helped you stay lean (most important thing) and keep up a strong heart and high blood volume. If I were you, I would continue to keep cross-training as part of the training regiment to get even stronger aerobically and burn more calories without the pounding and risk of fractures that higher mileage in running might cause.

Even pro athletes often cross-train as their second session during a day, Quigley for example is very often swimming in the water since she can't just run 90 mpw like some other woman at that level.

GL, train smart now and stay healthy and you will have a great final year in college!