What I thought was an IT Band issue, turned out to be a stress fracture in my right leg. Since I had never had either condition, I really didn't recognize what type of pain I was having.
I have no idea when it started, but I gathered some history on my year in training - here is what I found out...
I've run 772 miles, biked 2,300 miles and swum 51 miles this year so far. Not a crazy amount by any means. I may go back to previous years and compare.
I crashed my bike on March 11 2012, then did the Hat Run 50k on March 24th. Perhaps I jolted things loose and just got worse from there - don't know.
I fell down the stairs on April 23 2012, then ran a long sprint triathlon on May 5th. Again, maybe the trouble started there.
No accidents before any other races. I ran Eagleman on June 10th, took most of the next week off of running, then ran 9 times in one week when in Oregon on the week of June 18th for a total of 46 miles. That could have started the fracturing.... The following week I ran 7 times in 7 days for a total of 35 miles and then ran times the following week for a total of 26 miles - at the end of that third week I ran 12 miles on what I now know to be a stress fracture. After the 12 miles, game over - Level 4 stress fracture.
Hmm, so while not a lot of miles, I did do a lot of frequent running without days off and without building up to it.
The doctor explained that a level 4 fracture is the point just before a full-on broken leg.
Of course I didn't know this at the time, so 2 weeks after my 12 mile run, I did an Olympic triathlon (NJ State) - and while the better part of 2 weeks off began the healing process, I went right back to where I was during the race.
Finally, after the race, I decided to go to the doctor. Not because I had a clue that I had a stress fracture, but because I wanted to get PT for my IT Band which I 'thought' was the problem. Fortunately the doctor talked me into an MRI to rule out a stress fracture. Unfortunately, it was confirmed instead.
I called the Dr. office on Friday on my way to the Poconos for a 'training camp' with friends. The read the report and told me I had a level 4 stress fracture, but I had no idea what that meant. I asked the doctor to call me, but he failed to do so. So I did over 100 miles of cycling up and down the mountain that weekend - about 10k feed of climbing. When I finally got in touch with him on the following Monday, he told me I should not be riding. Now you tell me.
Well, I was holding out hope for Vegas world championships and kept swimming (17k yards in 1 week) and snuck in 2 heat training sessions on the bike with high cadence, but low pressure on the legs. Then went to another doctor to get a second opinion and he put it like this: 'you can risk it and possibly be out for 2 years, or you can sit this one out and heal in 6-8 weeks'.
Considering I haven't really been able to train properly for a critical training month leading up to Vegas, it really didn't make much sense to do the race and risk further injury.
A bit sad, a bit of a relief.
Did a blood test today to see if there is anything there that may have caused the weakness in my bones. I doubt it... classic over training. I should know better.
I have no idea when it started, but I gathered some history on my year in training - here is what I found out...
I've run 772 miles, biked 2,300 miles and swum 51 miles this year so far. Not a crazy amount by any means. I may go back to previous years and compare.
I crashed my bike on March 11 2012, then did the Hat Run 50k on March 24th. Perhaps I jolted things loose and just got worse from there - don't know.
I fell down the stairs on April 23 2012, then ran a long sprint triathlon on May 5th. Again, maybe the trouble started there.
No accidents before any other races. I ran Eagleman on June 10th, took most of the next week off of running, then ran 9 times in one week when in Oregon on the week of June 18th for a total of 46 miles. That could have started the fracturing.... The following week I ran 7 times in 7 days for a total of 35 miles and then ran times the following week for a total of 26 miles - at the end of that third week I ran 12 miles on what I now know to be a stress fracture. After the 12 miles, game over - Level 4 stress fracture.
Hmm, so while not a lot of miles, I did do a lot of frequent running without days off and without building up to it.
The doctor explained that a level 4 fracture is the point just before a full-on broken leg.
Of course I didn't know this at the time, so 2 weeks after my 12 mile run, I did an Olympic triathlon (NJ State) - and while the better part of 2 weeks off began the healing process, I went right back to where I was during the race.
Finally, after the race, I decided to go to the doctor. Not because I had a clue that I had a stress fracture, but because I wanted to get PT for my IT Band which I 'thought' was the problem. Fortunately the doctor talked me into an MRI to rule out a stress fracture. Unfortunately, it was confirmed instead.
I called the Dr. office on Friday on my way to the Poconos for a 'training camp' with friends. The read the report and told me I had a level 4 stress fracture, but I had no idea what that meant. I asked the doctor to call me, but he failed to do so. So I did over 100 miles of cycling up and down the mountain that weekend - about 10k feed of climbing. When I finally got in touch with him on the following Monday, he told me I should not be riding. Now you tell me.
Well, I was holding out hope for Vegas world championships and kept swimming (17k yards in 1 week) and snuck in 2 heat training sessions on the bike with high cadence, but low pressure on the legs. Then went to another doctor to get a second opinion and he put it like this: 'you can risk it and possibly be out for 2 years, or you can sit this one out and heal in 6-8 weeks'.
Considering I haven't really been able to train properly for a critical training month leading up to Vegas, it really didn't make much sense to do the race and risk further injury.
A bit sad, a bit of a relief.
Did a blood test today to see if there is anything there that may have caused the weakness in my bones. I doubt it... classic over training. I should know better.
No comments:
Post a Comment