Hey, guys. Sarah, I feel your sfx pain.  Dave--no running sucks but you CAN get through it--just throw yourself into what crosstraining is possible.

So... yeah, I  don't know if I mentioned this elsewhere, but the reason I disappeared is I have a femoral neck stress fracture.  It is on the compression side so it's not QUITE as bad as it could be, but it's just about the second-worst kind of break you can get; if I had kept running on it I could easily have shattered my hip and needed a hip replacement at age 25.  That is a terrifying thought and has so far kept me from overdoing it.  BTW I did get a bone density scan: happily my bones are quite thick and health, no osteoporosis or osteopenia despite my adolescent history of anorexia.  I guess genetics dealt me a good hand in terms of bone health.  It also means, though, that I REALLY need to watch how hard I push myself, as I somehow broke the largest, healthy bone in my body through sheer force of will.

I think it might have been doing tuck jumps in track spikes, actually.  On top of the stress of coming back too fast from my last injury/time off running, and maybe too fast an increase in speedwork/mileage or too much Olympic lifting?  Too much everything, I suppose, weakened it, and then jumping and landing hard probably did me in.

I haven't run in more than a month.  I still have 3.5 weeks to a month of zero running and zero lower body lifting that isn't leg extensions/curls/presses with weight I can handle "easily for 20 reps" according to the doctor (ugh).  The good news is:

1. I joined a Masters swim team!  I can now swim slightly faster than 'pathetic' and mimic an epileptic dolphin with my butterfly stroke.  And it is fun, albeit in a frustrating way: I feel I have untapped potential for speed that I can't access because the movement is so new to me and I'm just not coordinated in the water yet.  But the coach is fantastic and makes up for the team practice time at 6 am.

2. I'm finally allowed to bike, as well, so I'm doing hard intervals on the spin bike.  If you think I'm going to risk road biking and falling on my hip, you're craaazy.

3. Upper body has never looked so ripped.  Been working on chinups, pushups, triceps, bench press (sadly still pretty weak), overhead press, and have truly perfected my renegade rows.   This impresses my new boyfriend, who is a bodybuilder.

4. I haven't gained weight/fat.  Haven't lost, either, as I want to give my body enough to heal itself.  Been getting tons of calcium mostly in the form of Farmer's Market cheese.

Anyway, hi guys, definitely need the support right now.  Despite the above good points, I'm struggling a bit.  I can't motivate myself to pool run, for instance, as I just don't believe it helps: the movement is just too awkward and SO not anything like real running.  I guess spinning and swimming will have to do because psychologically I just cannot face it. :/

No idea how much longer I should wait, but thinking about testing it out sometime this weekend.

What exactly is your ailment?  The only thing I remember is pain behind your knee.

 

What exactly is your ailment?  The only thing I remember is pain behind your knee.

That's the one. Keeps coming back.

There you go.  (This isn't really bad at all... though my ITB is still crunching when I roll it, so there's more crap in there to get rid of.  Fun.)

Incredible!  I am not sure I would ever do that, in fact, I am pretty sure I would not.  When I had my ITB problem (spent 5 weeks on the bench), I was told to buy a foam roller, then roll on it until my IT band "hurt like the dickens".  I passed!  lol

But I understand needing to take things to another level when all else fails.  Thankfully for me, I was able to do some strengthening exercises and find a shoe that did not exacerbate the problem.

Hopefully you are on the mend, we want more pics of you racing horses! 

That's the one. Keeps coming back.

It is truly bizarre (and unfortunate) that there is no name for that or treatment.  Have you seen a chiropractor?  Though that whole cracky thingy that they do creeps me the F out, them people are good when traditional medicine fails to come up with a diagnosis.

Dr. Mary in Warren works with Olympic athletes, and has a ton of experience.  She is pretty sharp.  Just sitting and talking with one may uncover the root cause of your problem, something you are possibly overlooking.

In any event, good luck with your test run!

Dave, please do get a referral to a sports medicine doctor or orthopedist.  Sometimes there's an easy fix for things and it  is SO SO important to get a diagnosis, as on occasion you can make things worse from not knowing what something is.  Like, for instance, when I didn't know I had an sfx I was still doing things like the rowing machine thinking it was OK, but turns out it puts a LOT of pressure on the femur.  So please do go and let us know what's up.  Insurance covers most of that anyhow, doesn't it?

LRB--My dad is also on the semi-injured list, so he's probably not going to attempt sub-7:00 this year--maybe in winter on the indoor track with me since with luck I'll be fit to compete again.  (Can you say 4 x 200 relay on a banked track? YES).  He's not seriously wounded, just knee twinges from too much tennis so he's wary of speedwork, which I believe is quite right.  I have him doing some exercises to strengthen core and quad muscles to protect his knees.

So many of my friends, online and IRL, are injured and off running... I really do believe it's a very injury-prone sport when done on a serious competitive level.  Of course, that's most things done on a serious competitive level.  My coach told me the other day "You can't train to avoid a stress fracture, you just have to know when you're beginning to feel pain and back off," and I guess that's right--you train and simply need to listen to your body and know how it's responding, not blindly follow plans.  Balancing that with the 'good' pain of proper breakdown, from which you can recover--tha'ts the tough part.  Oy.

I also believe more and more in cardio crosstraining as well as weights.  I'll continue swimming and cycling once I can run again.  Even though I will always prefer running, I just gotta do it.

Scappodaqui - the problem with stress fractures, and a lot of other running injuries, is that there often is no warning at all.  Both my injuries came completely out of nowhere.  I had months of running injury free.  I didn't even need an advil after any of my runs.  Then one day, big TWINGE, and then I couldn't run.  Not for months and months.  I think that is what is so scary to me about starting up again.  I have no way of knowing when or whether I'll get hurt again..

Ginny--oy, I'm sorry to hear that's how it went for you.  Are you back running yet?  Excuse me if I haven't read through the whole thread--sadly long.  For me, though, it didn't come on suddenly.  I was having twinges in a specific part of my thigh for about 8 weeks before I think it fractured officially.  I remember feeling odd because I couldn't extend the leg during a pistol squat.

Damaris--good to see you too, hope the asthma is treating you OK.

jjs--yeah, I'm improving pretty quickly as the movement becomes more natural.  I'm doing my 50s in <45s now, which isn't terrible.  But it would be super awesome to get my mile time under 30 (I'm at about 35 now, though that wasn't all out).  I'll definitely check out that book, though the 3 x per week workouts should be good for me for now.  How is your swimming?