Thursday, July 3, 2008

Nope, Not Running Again

Well, it's official. I've been diagnosed with a stress fracture in the front part of my lower left shin. That means all of the running I did this spring (AR50, Daffodil 5K, Big Sur Marathon) was all done with a stress fracture. Wow. What a dummy. But I guess this is as good a time as any to take some time off running. With all the fires in the area the smoky skies are terrible.

I told the doctor about running in San Francisco because the leg had stopped hurting and he said that's a good sign. It's healing. However, 15 miles in 3 days is not the way to stage a come back. He thinks more along the lines of 1-2 miles on a treadmill would be more appropriate. Sounds boring to me. Last summer I had a torn calf and was much smarter about the recovery and easy come back and ended up doing some great runs in the fall. I'll work on doing that strategy again. But from the sounds of it I won't be doing any running for another 4-6 weeks, or longer. It's all based on pain: if it hurts, don't run on it. Ok.

It's been so long since I ran (end of April) that I've kind of gotten used to it. I still miss it, the simplicity of putting on a pair of shoes and heading out the door for an hour or so. But my focus has switched to the bike and that's not a bad thing. It was my original passion, starting with centuries and double centuries and moving up to 300K and 400K Brevets, even a couple 24 hour Fleche rides. My dad got me into bike riding so I don't have many memories of bike rides that don't include him. We've spent hours following and leading each other up mountain passes, across deserts, and along rivers, exploring the beautiful areas of this country. We don't ride much together anymore and I miss that very much. Life gets so busy, we live 6 hours apart, I'm busy with work and 2 little kids, and he's busy living the wonderful life of the retired with lots of travelling (and double knee surgery). But it's always there, in the back of my mind, the hope that our days of riding together will happen again. There are a few more roads left to explore.

5 comments:

Sarah said...

I'll take your post as good news because now you know! : ) Really, 4-6 weeks is not much in the grand scheme of things. Enjoy your bike and take it easy once you can run again. Take care! : )

Sarah said...

P.s. I'm not sure if you know Darrell, but you may be interested in reading his blog. He's just coming back from a stress fracture: http://fivedown.blogspot.com/

Mark Tanaka (Ultrailnakaman) said...

Congrats on finally getting the answer, sympathies for not being able to run, but great that you have biking to keep you busy, entertained and in shape.

Darrell said...

Hi Catherine, thanks for stopping by. I just checked my tracker and found an interesting address that lead me to you.

Sorry to hear about the stress fracture. I know what you mean about how hard not running is. Only time will heal it, so enjoy the bike riding, but even take that easy.

I love all the pics in your blog. I'll stop back again to see how things are going. Good luck.

Adelyn said...

Knowing a diagnosis is somewhat of a relief, I'd think, even though the rest and not running might not be as exciting. Hopefully this month (and a bit) will fly by and you'll be back out there in no time.

I've been trying to use biking to tide me over while I'm not running too...it's a pretty fun substitute, but definitly isn't the same :)