So I met with the doctor yesterday morning to go over my MRI. It was negative as in no stress fracture. That's good news of course. The MRI did show something weird on the left leg that caused the doctor to pause. He sent me in for a CT Scan to get more detail on what it might be.
The weather was downright miserable yesterday and I didn't get a chance to run until the evening. I tried the treadmill and less than one minute in my calf started buggin me so I called it quits.
Woke up early this morning and ran 11 miles ahead of my PT appointment. The run went fine with no real soreness. The PT did manage to find a couple of pain points on the interior side of the bone where the muscle and bones attach. It's basically swelling in the sheath which is often a precursor to stress fractures.
So basically, I'm kind of stuck. After talking to the doctor, my coach and the PT, I think the plan for the next couple of weeks is to run every other day and cross train the other days. The PT was very much against a cold turkey approach because he feels like activity is vital to healing the area. So I will continue to run the 12-14 miles a day except do it every other day plus a Saturday longer run. So I am planning on Mon/Wed/Fri 12-14 miles each day plus 15-20 on Saturdays. That leaves Sunday for complete rest and Tuesday Thursday for some cross training. I will think I will go back to my P90x collection and pick out a couple of workouts to do on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Yoga will definitely be one of them.
I think I will also make speed work a core part of one of the running days to try and keep some level or cardio fitness. WHat it really comes down to is giving my body more time to recover between runs so it can heal up and not linger.
A bummer, but not a total loss. |