Running with a torn ACL (Read 10763 times)

I tore mine after my senior year in college running xc. I lucked out to have a really top-flight ortho and ended up with some good advice from him. He's had plenty of patients who have decided not to undergo reconstruction and run several marathons a year. So it's not necessary if you want to run, just like it looks like you were told by your's and as some other people have mentioned. For me, it wasn't really much of an option though. I like other sports too much, I was fairly young, and when it comes to running I will take a trail over a road any day of the week. All of those point towards having something done. I ran for probably 3 months or so after I broke mine without any real problems, though I lost probably around 3-4 minutes off my sustained mile time immediately. Once I had the surgery, I found that the rehab wasn't that bad for me. I progressed pretty quickly and was able to jog again pretty soon. The problem for me came not with the reconstruction causing problems, but the time off causing a severe drop in motivation to keep running. I did it off and on after that but wasn't able to keep up with it compared to some other things that were going on. Definitely be ready for something like that if it comes down to it. Still, just go with what feels right to you given what you like to do and what you'd like to do in the future.