Hi labtri,
I had one of these in 2019. It was painful and i had to get an MRI to find out what it was. I remember one day catching the bus home from work pre-diagnosis and walking back home from the bus stop was very painful. The next day I went to the doctor. I was in the boot of shame for a few weeks and got around with a knee cycle. During this time I still swam with a pull buoy but stopped cycling for a couple of weeks. I started seated indoor cycling after a while and was probably off running for about 3 months in total.
I put my fracture down to lots of treadmill running. This may or may not be true but I reckon treadmill running can alter your stride a bit.
Be patient and you will recover fully.

Thanks for your feedback Keithh.

I was also running a lot on the treadmill (like 5 hours a week) My running improved a lot during this season.

Did you feel pain while cycling when you got your diagnosis? I feel absolutely nothing. Yesterday I did a crazy hard Vo2 workout on the trainer and there's no sign of pain (the doctor advised to do not do low gear work, everything else I'm "allowed")... It was the first one in about a month.

Hi labtri,
I felt no pain on the windtrainer. Same as you I did no low cadence work on the trainer and I just worked my way up from 15 mins to 90mins. Then I went back out on the road.

I've been there. Sort of a diffuse pain for a couple of weeks, just kept going. Mine was almost certainly ramping up the mileage too quickly. Was racing in Louisville KY and it started to hurt sharply during the run. Left leg. By the time I was close to home (3 hr drive), I almost could not push the clutch in for the pain - thought I might need to try my 'shift without the clutch' skillz. Went to my sports med doc the next day - xray showed the stress fracture pretty clearly. I was told - no running for 12 weeks, wear the boot for a few weeks, ok to swim and bike as long as there is no pain. I was mostly in the pool and, later, on the indoor trainer. Yup, about 12 weeks... Even walking was painful for what seemed like a long time - maybe 10 weeks - and it did not seem to feel any better/different. But when it felt better, there was no gradual reduction - one morning it didn't hurt to walk around and it felt perfect every day after that - like a light switch turned the pain off. Weird.

That's quite uncommon, since the fibula is not a weightbearing bone. Almost all of the load is placed on the tibia, not the fibula.

I would definitely check the following things, just to make sure you know why the fibula broke, as it's very uncommon to do so.

How is your running economy? Too much pronation, too much landing in supination?
How is your food intake and bone density in general? This is a quite common problem in lean endurance athletes
Are the muscles around the fibula causing any problems? You could get these assessed and/or treated by a PT. Dry Needling does wonders for the deep muscles that attach to the fibula.

You should spend your time off running to get to the root cause of the cause of this injury. Good luck!

I've had a bunch of sfx, but my very first one was L fibula in 2005. It healed just fine with 6 or 8 weeks of not running (I can't recall exact time as it was almost two decades ago). I wish you the best; keep us updated.

---

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Deep Water Running
If can access a gym you can also use an elliptical trainer which is non impact.

Hit the weights strength train and build some capacity especially in tendon areas as these are the places that lose capacity the most.

Seated and standing calf
Prone hamstring curls or supine using a skateboard
Wall Sits/Isometric Spanish squats for patella tendon.

These actually should be staples of any running/triathlete in training

---

Andrew Garwood
http://www.2xu.com
http://www.newtonrunning.com
http://www.ascendsport.com.au

That's nice, I've been cycling 2+hours a session, since week two with no pain.. I actually could cycle on the very first week with no problem but kept it as conservative as I could.




Such a mysterious injury. My symptoms are a bit different than yours. Could tell where you had pain? outer shin, closer to the knee or anckle?
Thanks!



Very good considerations indeed.
How do supination would affect this consideration? What could be done do minimize landing in supination?
I do supinate a bit, although my shoes does not usually wear on lateral side.

Massage and stretch those muscles that you mentioned was also suggested by the doctor. They feel tight. I read somewhere that in some cases, they can brake the fibula, not the impact itself.


Very happy to hear that you had a completely recover in a relative short period of time. thank you very much for your support Dr.Tigerchik.




Thank you for your considerations garwood.
Deep water running is a new activity for me and I'm actually enjoying it. It feels like it's helping with cycling as well, IDK, hard to say...



Thank you all for your support and feedbacks