I have a question for you. I was recently diagnosed with a stress
fracture 2 days before Grandma's Marathon. So... needless to say I was
unable to run it. The problem now is that my orthopedic doesn't seem to
know a lot about what type of training I can do while recovering to
maintain my running performance. I think spinning (intense stationary
bike classes) would be very good, but I am not sure if that will delay
recovery of a stress fracture or not. Would you please let me know your
ideas and/or opinions on recovering from this time of injury, and still
maintaining performance?
Thank you very much for your time!
Brian:
Shin splints often lead to stress fractures, another mechanism is overtraining on hard surfaces. Either way, you need to give your legs time (usually six weeks) to recover before you push hard. No impact or low impact is the way to travel...so your spinning program might be fine, and I often suggest swimming as an alternative exercis strategy until you feel better.
Before you return to running, get orthotics made for your shoes, and work into them gradually. Also, start at about 20% of your current training routine, and build up slowly to your former training levels.
Let me know if you have other wuestions.
Neil
