Hip Stress Fracture (Read 101 times)

I had one.  You should be non-weight bearing on that side, which means crutches.  Mine healed well.  I was on the crutches for a month (after I was finally diagnosed) and then a couple more weeks on not running but at least I could do other cardio.  While I was on the crutches I wasn't allowed to do anything because it really needed to be rested and not stressed at all.

What did the physician say who diagnosed you?  Surely he or she gave you instructions about whether or not to be weight bearing and what to expect for healing.

I'd suppose different outcomes depend on where in the hip, but I had one on the ball of my hip, along with a torn labrum, impingement and 2 or 3 bone spurs all at the same time.  Hurt a lot, I was limping severely, it was worse after sitting and then getting up and I could not sleep on that side, ached all the time.  This was a couple years ago when I decided I was invincible after a few successful months at 75-100 mile weeks w/ no injuries, no aches and no real rest days.  That was stupid.

I stubbornly ran a trail marathon on it and paced 2 major half marathons on it before an MRA pointed out that it was all fucked up.  My doctor said I should not be walking on it at all. Here I thought I had a really bad strain but in retrospect it should have been more obvious something was wrong since I couldn't walk without limping (oddly it was more comfortable to run than walk). I began to sleep on the other side (which was harder to get used to than expected).

I stopped running for a couple of months and started doing PT.  Felt like longer.  Nothing motivates you more to run than not being able to run.  I could bike but it was still sore so I didn't do much of that.  Luckily I did not need any surgeries. I started hitting the gym daily and hard until I finally liked that routine, focusing on all that body I ignored from just running (upper body and core).  After going back into my doc after a couple months of this and being cleared to run I started again and was surprised I didn't loose much fitness, came back quickly and actually had PRs at the mile, 5 and 10K, half marathon and half ironman.

Subsequently I've come to notice that my hip gets all out of wack again coming out of winter, and I think that's because I tend to hit the treadmill HARD all winter.  So I've given up the treadmill 100% and do all of my running outdoors, and still do 3-4 hard gym workouts per week (upper body and core) and get around 40ish miles/week on the road, and I bike about an hour each day (commute) with some longer biking on the weekends. This helps keep my running mileage lower without having to give up my ice cream habit.

Anyway, rest up for a while but by rest I mean don't run but DO go to the gym and keep yourself fit and sane until you can run again.  Then figure out what was the cause of the injury in the first place.  For me, I'm fairly certain it was a combo of too high mileage with too much of it on the treadmill and no rest days.  I used to be a huge proponent of the treadmill, I could literally run for hours on it.  Now I won't set foot on one.