What do you do when you can’t run? Archery! I’ve not done it for over 15 years but seems like I’d remembered what to do and enjoyed getting a good few arrows in the gold. it was a welcome distraction and probably good theropy for me to do something enjoyable while I can’t run, especially as it was a horrible rainy day and the achery range was indoor.
Some fairly accurate shooting, although it was only at 10 yards
Anyhow back to ruunning, last Friday I went to see my consultant for the final time to get the results from some blood tests and a bone density scan. This was to try and find out what might have caused the stress fracture in the first place and help me plan what to do in the future. At the meeting I tried to find out as much detail about my injury as possible. In this post I would like to try and write it all down in a none technical way so that it is easy to understand and as a personal record for me, as I’m so forgetful and may wish to refer back this at some point in the future.
My stress fracture is on the right side of my Sacrum bone. This bone is a triangular shaped bone at the bottom of the spine and above the Coccyx. Seems like it will take up to 3 months for it to heal by a process of my body growing new bone around the injury and can take up to 12 months before this new bone settles into a form which is similar the how it was before the injury. The good news is nothing needs to be done for this to happen, I just simply have to let nature take its course.
I’m not completely sure of all the details from the blood tests but I was told they were all normal. The significant one was the test for vitamin D which affects your bones and this was also normal so all great news here.
It has been an autumn full of scans, initially I had a MRI scan which showed trauma to the bone, then a CT scan which is basically a 3D x-ray which clearly showed the stress fracture. Lastly I had a DEXA scan which is a bone density scan. Even though it is my Sacrum which has the fracture this scan was done on my hip joint and lower back. The bone in my hip joint came back fine but the bone in my lower back showed signs of Osteopenia. This means the bone is a bit weaker than normal but not so far gone that they may beak easily and for my age it doesn’t seem much below normal. The consultant has suggested that a calcium tablet a day should be all I need.
So with nothing else to be done, it is just a matter of letting nature heal me and leaves me with the big question of how long do I wait? Currently I’ve been going to the gym using the cross trainer and steps machine to work up a sweat without subjecting my hip to any impact. The consultant said I’ll know when I feel ready to start running again and to simply go with how my body feels. It’s now 11 weeks since I first felt my hip problem and 9 weeks since my disastrous run at San Francisco marathon. I’m fine walking and only getting a mild dull pain if I carry weight or balance on my right leg.
So I don’t exactly know when I’ll be ok to run, I feel I should try a short run of about a mile soon, maybe this week to gauge whether I can run more or have to wait a bit longer. Once I’m confident my injury has healed the question is then how quickly or slowly will I be able to build up my training’s weekly mileage?
After having an injury which has taken me out of my hobby for so long, I’m very concerned about doing something too soon and set myself back weeks. On the other hand I’m dying to get back to doing some regular running and am extremely frustrated to be missing out on this autumn’s marathon session as I had a good handful of races entered which I had been looking forward to doing. I also feel disconnected from my running friends while missing these races. Although I wouldn’t want to go along to races to only watch as it would only frustrate me even more.
Lots of uncertainty for my running and without any defined running schedule, this is new territory for me and definitely not where I’d like to be. All I can do is listen to my body and feel my way back to marathon running. I will get there. All I can say is if you love running and are able to run then enjoy it because only when you can’t do it, do you realise how wonderful it is.
