More On Stress Fracture Recovery

Thanks, Runcolo, your comment is perhaps the most helpful yet. I skipped replying to your comment, and figured I'd just write my next entry around it here. I appreciate the fact that you've been through this exact injury, and that really speaks volumes to me.

The link you sent about recovering from the stress fracture had some really important points, for example, that "On average, it takes 90 days for a stress fracture to heal completely." I've also read that the tibia, being one of the largest bones in your body, can actually take a little longer.

This in particular gave me hope: "You may be able to resume running 6 to 8 weeks after the initial diagnosis," if you take it cautiously. I thought this test was particularly good: "When you can walk briskly for an hour without pain, you should be able to try a small dose of running." I haven't even tried the hour walk test.

We certainly figured out this weekend I wasn't quite ready to run short distances every day. So, we're trying out an every-other-day approach, whereby I'm either aqua jogging or something else less impactful on alternate days. While waiting for my aqua jogger belt to arrive, I hopped on the elliptical machine yesterday and hated every unnatural second.

The article sanctions at least some running during recovery (which does keep my spirits up): "Initially, you should run every 3rd day or every other day." I'm scheduled for an easy 2-mile run today (and a non-impact workout tomorrow). Depending on how I feel for the next few hours, I'll either do the run or skip it and catch a spin class at 5:15 tonight. I think I may give the hour-walk test a try this week.