Okay, my wonderful runner readers...I need your help.
Here's the sitch. In August I hurt my tibia, a stress fracture to be specific. It's been a long time healing, and around Thanksgiving finally felt strong enough that I could run without pain as long as I stuck to run/walk intervals. During my half-training for my upcoming race (Feb 27th), I've had to miss 2 long runs because of tibia pain. The thing is, the pain is inexplicable. There is literally no rhyme or reason to why this pain has been coming back. For example, last Sunday I ran 7 miles (a new distance record) and had some soreness the next day. Tuesday I ran a solid 4.5 miles with no pain. Then Thursday night my tibia is killing me again, and it's still bothering me now. Thus why I missed my planned 8 mile run today. Bummer. Oh that, and the awful knots in my other calf, which, thanks to my wonderful massage yesterday and a lengthy tennis ball massage session, feels a million times better.
My race is 5 weeks away. It's my first half, so it's important to me to get in the mileage beforehand and get my body ready to go. But...I don't want to hurt my tibia worse. Should I take a break this week? Should I switch my weekly runs to extra cross training and just run the long runs? Should I still put in the mileage, but at a walk (which doesn't hurt)? I really am at a loss.
To top it off, injury = lack of motivation for me. When going to the gym leaves me feeling so bummed out, it's just not fun to go. Any motivation tips?
I'm no expert, but if I've learned anything in the past, it's not to push an injury. I hurt my IT band pretty bad and made it worse by not giving my knee the proper amount of time to heal - and as a result, was not able to run for about 9 months.
ReplyDeleteIf the pain isn't constant, maybe you can make up your long run during the week, if it's feeling better (but of course, stop if it comes back)? I'm also training for my first half, so I understand the concern about getting the mileage in. I still think some activity is better than none, so if you're able to cross train with no pain, I would try that.
Good luck, and I hope you get better quickly!
I do not know much about injuries either but everything I read says not to push if something feels truly 'off' and since this is a re-occuring issue, it sounds like there is still something going on.
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