Stress Fracture Recovery Summary

On July 13th I got a stress fracture in the second metatarsal of my right foot which was confirmed 8 weeks later when it showed up on a follow up Xray. I had been averaging 45 miles per week with lots of mountain trail running and "barefoot" running thrown in. Two weeks before the break I had reached 70 miles for the one week. I dropped to 30 the next week and the following Tuesday the fracture occurred.

I went 49 days (7 weeks) without any running, very little bicycling, and some short walks. I wore a Cam-walker for about five of those weeks and it was very helpful in making the foot pain-free without making getting around too difficult. I rode a motorcycle a lot, which was easier than putting it on and taking it off for driving.

I ran three times that first week after the 49 days, all less than 3 miles. The following week I had a cold and ran a short distance a couple of times toward the end of that week. Last week I ran 6 out of 7 days but 2.3 miles was the maximum and most of those "runs" were run/walk because I'm running with teenagers who are beginning runners. I had one scare in there when the foot felt extra achy and a tad swollen when I went out for three more miles on my own in Vibrams one afternoon after running with the students.

Yesterday I didn't run, as mentioned, and today I ran 3.9 miles at 10 minute pace on pavement with the temperature at 90 degrees(it reached 96 today). There was no pain and I didn't feel as if I needed to favor the foot. I've been going around my normal business all day and it has felt normal.

I'm going to continue to take it easy, continue to run in shoes on smooth surfaces for a couple more weeks and then reassess. Most of this has been mentioned in previous posts, but I thought that if someone finds this looking for insight into what they can expect with a similar stress fracture he or she could just read this one summary.