oh boy! ok, there is the fodder for my epic PM... i'll write you a novel on stress fractures tonite.

i'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and sending good vibes your way.

Calcaneal stress fractures are relatively unusual and heal quickly becuase of good blood supply to the bone. But, if present - no IM Canada for you :( Hopefully, he/she is just being overly careful to rule this out since he knows (likely) about your IM intentions. Achilles tendonitis itself may make your IM hard though.

---

____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

I fractured my Calcaneus in college doing the steeplechase (bad water pit landing) and while it didn't take that long to heal, I did re-fracture it relatively easily jumping off a lifeguard stand to pull out some fat kid...

Be careful and give it time to mend fully.

Thanks Lauren!

I was diagnosed with a stress fracture in my tibia 2 weeks ago. I am looking at 6-8 more weeks of no running at all. I can still ride and swim, but will have to do water running. The water running is boring as all heck, but according to a marathoner friend, it helps maintain fitness. Unfortunately, I will not be able to do the Timberman 1/2 in August. I will have to opt for the Aquabike instead.

It sucks. I hope yours turns out to be something else. Good luck.

I broke my finger 3 weeks before IMCDA a few years ago. Did the event with a plastic cast on my middle finger. I was scared about missing the event when I found out it was broken, but by race day I did not care how injured I was.

Either one of the possibilities you mention sucks. Best of luck to you and I hope you make your race.

---

_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Oh, I'll make the race. If I need a pair of crutches for the afternoon, I'm still on the beach at 7.

Thanks all.

I hear ya! I was diagnosed with a tibial stress fracture 3-4 wks out from IMF 2003 and never considered not doing the race, even at the "suggestion" of my coach and the doc. It was my second sf and took about 4-6 wks to heal. Could still bike and swim, just not run. (ended up DNF'ing anyway but not because of the sf.)

My first was more serious - femoral neck. I was on crutches for 4 months and could only swim but not even push off the wall.

Yeah, that's the thing. Not doing the race isn't an option. Hope you didn't do any long-term damage.

2003 - I raced a half IM in May on a stress fx....I couldn't walk for a few days after, and in September I tried to race IMWisconsin after not running all summer...I did the eliptical trainer in replace of run training that summer....I DNF'ed due to bad nutrition, dehydration, heat, and maybe from no run training....I did do an olympic distance race two weeks later and got second place.

2005 - This year at IMAZ I didnt run much the last three weeks before the race due to tendanitus in my shin....I took alot of extra strength tylenol during the race and it did the trick...it took me 8 weeks to get back to running again, but who cares as long as you get through the race.

2004 - Extra strength tylenol also got me through the Pineman IM this fall, it was the week after IMWisconsin where I had to walk the last 13 miles due to knee pain....I started the run(at pineman) and a few miles in my knee started to hurt again, so I popped a few EST and I was fine(ran a PB 3:07 run split as well), once again I was out of running for a while after the race, but again who cares

So good luck and remember the tylenol

---

Ruble Triathlon Coaching Average of 30 coached PR's per year
Florida Triathlon Camps Train in North Americas winter training destination
Ruble Racing Events Midwest Triathlon Racing
Ruble Timing Midwest Event Timing

Just back from the clinic. They shot some goo into my arm and I have to go back in a few hours for the scan. How long did you guys have to wait for the lab to prepare their report and get it back to your doc?

Unfortunately, I have some experience in this area. Had two rounds of stress fractures in both legs from overtraining (finally identified where things were going wrong and have been fine for a year now).

As far as the results go, both times I was given the films to take with me, so they were read by the orth. as soon as I could get in to see him. I could see the monitor both times they did mine and could see that I had problems right away when there were bright white spots on what was a rather dull colored bone.

Revcovery, at least for me, both times was at least 8 weeks of no running. I would think that if you keep up the biking and swimming (and if you've done some of your long runs (18 + miles)) that you should get through the race fine. Your time might suffer and you might set back your recovery, but you'll get to do the race.

Hopefully it's something else, though. Best of luck!

I found out I had a stress fracture about six months after I got it and it healed. I had run through some nagging pain in fall '03. In summer '04 I had an MRI and xray to investigate a different problem. That turned out to be nothing, but the doc just casually pointed at the pictures and said, "But it looks like this stress fracture here healed up nicely."

I said, "Huh? What stress fracture?"

So, the good news is that it might not turn out to be such a big deal and you can heal quickly.