Luckily the left foot responded positively to Sunday’s easy two miler, so after a brief spin session at home last night, I was able to run again today. Actually, after reading a good article on “returning to running after a stress fracture” I decided to mix in a bit of walking to break up the pounding of the running. During walking, your body absorbs forces of about twice your body weight, but with impact forces of running being at least twice as great as for walking, I’m keen not to do too much too soon.
I started with five minutes of brisk walking and covered a paltry third of a mile. My foot felt fine, so I gingerly sped up to a slow run and ran the next mile in about 8 minutes. Again, no real pain but I decided to walk the next five minutes before sloshing through the waterlogged soccer fields for another mile — this one a bit quicker than the first. The walk back to the car took about five minutes and rounded off the 30 minute “workout” nicely. Three miles covered. Foot feeling okay (probably 3 and a bit on a scale of 1 to 10). Nice to be out there!
Wednesday will be more indoor biking and maybe an easy mile of walking if the foot is feeling good. Thursday I get to run again, and maybe cover a little more ground than the latest three miles.
In other news, I’m still following the hundred push-ups program and have started to mix in some squats, dips and core exercises. Anything to burn a few extra calories….
Good luck for a continued sucessful comeback.
You mention above an article you read on “returning to running after a stress fracture”. Can you elaborate or offer a link?
I am now at week 1 of my stress fracture and not looking forward to 5-6 more weeks of no running. I’m looking for any tips or suggestions to speed my recovery along.