So I think I had a stress reaction on the lower part of my tibia and have taken almost 3 weeks off of running. The bone is not sore anymore, but it feels a bit sore in that area. I have been riding lots and can’t feel it at all on the bike. Ran very easy yesterday for 25 minutes and doesn’t feel worse today.
When do people get cleared to try easy running after an injury like this? When you do return to running, do you still have some residual pain?
So I think I had a stress reaction on the lower part of my tibia and have taken almost 3 weeks off of running. The bone is not sore anymore, but it feels a bit sore in that area. I have been riding lots and can’t feel it at all on the bike. Ran very easy yesterday for 25 minutes and doesn’t feel worse today.
When do people get cleared to try easy running after an injury like this? When you do return to running, do you still have some residual pain?
A little confused when you say “the bone is not sore anymore, but it feels sore in that area.”
Since you started with “I think” you probably don’t have a real diagnosis. Tibial stress fractures or “reaction” generally take about 6 weeks to heal minimum. Many type-As often erroneously feel good after 2-3 weeks off (an eternity for us I realize), then get back to running only to be back in the same boat shortly thereafter. Now you have another 6 weeks to go … and so on.
My suggestion is get a good diagnosis first, then progress from there once you know what is going on.
Agree with Andrew, get an official diagnosis. A stress reaction can easily turn to a stress fracture. I waited six weeks before even thinking about loading it…
Be careful on bike…especially if you are mashing hills, etc. I take Whole Foods Bone Complex and have Vitamin D drops that are 2000IU’s per drop. Take three a day, taste like olive oil. Actually got mine from allergist who recommended both based on deficiency of calcium and Vit D. Good luck, rest up.
I had a proximal (upper) tibial stress reaction in Apr ‘12. I raced through it at AmZof in May and then didn’t run at all in June. My first run back was a July 4th 5k where I did 2’ running, 2’ walking and I still felt the area to be sensitive to the touch. Another 2 weeks off then I ran conservatively (1-2x/week) for the rest of July using the same run/walk pattern and slowly increasing the run time. In August I started running full time again (4-5x/week) but kept the pace slow and strictly ran on a treadmill/track/trail. Finally in the end of September I was part of a Ragnar team and ended up running 27mi on roads over the course of 25hrs and felt no pain. FWIW, I took calcium supplements and religiously did the lower leg exercises that my sports doc recommended to his shin splint athletes.
Take your time getting back into running. It isn’t worth the continued discomfort or the risks of running through the pain. IMHO, I was over-conservative. But that probably just means that I was actually following (::gasp:
my doc’s conservative approach to recovery. Use this as a time to focus on swim/bike if you can. If you maintain both of those, your running fitness will return faster than you think. Good luck!
Im actually on the same boat here, Mine bone doesnt hurt anymore when walking, but still cant run, so far I have rested it 2.5 weeks, and pain got away. I did a quick test to see if i can run, i begun to hurt after 15 mins, and stop running at min 25, I’m resting more 
I took 8 weeks off land running after an official diagnosis of stress reaction in my left tibia.
During those 8 weeks, I used the Pfitzinger 9 week water running program found here: http://www.pfitzinger.com/labreports/water.shtml
I started with week 4, did that a few times and then started moving through the plan.
After the 8 weeks were up, I started running on land while continuing the water running program for another month. Started with an abysmally slow pace and tiny mileage on land of and slowly ramped it back up enough such that I was able to race, 3.5 months after the diagnosis. The water running allowed me to keep and build my fitness. The slow return allowed some build up of leg toughness.