Stress Fracture Comeback

[Toby Barlow]

I have a stress fracture in my ankle and heel.  I am in week 5 of my 8 week recovery.  I've been pool running and swimming (alittle biking, but it seems to irritate my foot).  I'm concerned on how to "come back".  How do you do this? 

I am training for Grandma's Marathon - training starts on February 15 and the race is June 19.  By the time I can come back (which will be week  3 or 4 of marathon training) I should be running a 14 mile run, which I know my foot won't be able to handle. I don't know how to gently return to running.  Any suggestions?

[Jeff Linger]

Jack Daniel's recommends that a return from an injury be based on the formula relative to a % of your base dependent upon time out. For a person out 8 weeks his suggestion would follow as 18 days running easy at 33% of your original base mileage when you went down, followed by 19 days at 50% of your base, followed by 19 days at 75% of your base, after which you can return to normal. That probably doesn't fit well with your marathon training though. And I think a lot depends upon the nature of the injury itself and what you've done during your downtime. I would guess you'd be safe to return at something like 50% of your base, upping it by 10% per week.

[Steve P]

If you can stand the pool running and/or swimming, it might be a good idea to keep doing that some days, even after you are healed up. That will less the impact on the bones but still give you some cardio/muscle benefit. Dathan Ritzenhein, American Record holder in the 5K, recently posted some advice about coming back from injuries that might be helpful to you as well. http://dathanritzenhein.competitor.com/2010/02/01/cross-training/

[Toby Barlow]

Thanks for the responses.  I've had that feeling for awhile that I may not be able to run my marathon in June.  But there are lots of other races out there!

Jeff - do you have a website of where you got the Coach Daniels come back percentages?  Those were great and I want to read more!

[Jeff Linger]

From my copy of Jack Daniel's book "Jack Daniels Running Formula".