Seeking some wisdom and a little bit of medical advice:
After a couple months of lingering foot pain, I saw a podiatrist who diagnosed a stress fracture in my 5th metatarsal. He prescribed a boot and no physical activity (swimming, biking, or running) for 6-8 weeks. I’m already signed up for IM CdA in June, so don’t want to pause training, but understand that 6-8 weeks now and full recovery is better than nursing an injury and walking a painful marathon.
Here’s my question, is it really necessary to stop swimming? I asked the doc and he mentioned the foot flexion during swimming isn’t optimal for recovery. I see his point, but wonder about the balance of trade-offs. Swimming is my weakness so could really benefit from a focused block; I could keep up my aerobic fitness; and I’m only 9000 yards short of my 2022 goal to swim 200,000 yards.
My non-md advice would be to take at least 2-3 weeks of NO KICKING or pushing off of the wall at all. Only use the pull buoy. DO NOT MOVE YOUR FEET WHEN YOU SWIM. Then, after 2-3 weeks gradually add pushing off then kicking. Both kicking and pushing off of the wall will add quite a bit of stress to your feet. As I said, I am not an MD or similar, but I have been through a couple of stress fractures in my feet.
Do you have stretch cords you could use also for maintaining some of your swimming muscles?
Not a doc. My experience was a stress fracture right by the pubic symphysis, where the adductor muscle attaches. My doctor prescribed no impact activities (running, jumping, or similar) or heavy gym work with the legs, but every thing else was welcome. Even cycling, but always seated to keep the hip stable and with high cadence. He said for 12 to 15 weeks, but to be 100% safe and as I al ready lost the triathlon season, I went to 20 weeks. Then started with water-jogging without touching the bottom, then barely touching it, then touching it fully but water by the chest, and progressing from there and on. Diagnosed in May, and by November I was jogging on solid ground.
I had a stress fracture in my left tibia. I was in a boot 6 weeks - but wasn’t religious about wearing it. I was then out of the boot for 6 weeks because I should have been healed by then and trained hard to make up for the lost time. I ended up back in the boot for 8 weeks and my Orthopedic surgeon at that point said “If you run again in the next 12 months, I will be putting a rod in your leg and you won’t run again.”
My advice: Defer IMCdA & LISTEN TO YOUR DOCTOR NOT SLOWTWITCH!
Let me preface this by saying I am not a doctor and this is just what I would do (as your question asked). Personally, I would probably swim, to keep the feel, and keep sane probably more importantly, but not do anything hard with my feet or push off the wall with that foot. I would do a lot of hardcore sculling (including with paddles) so my arms were falling off, do hypoxic work, lots of stretch cords, core work and gym (upper body). I wouldn’t run. After giving the foot time to heal (4-6 weeks) I would put a soft cushion or sponge in a big shoe and get on a stationary bike or trainer and just roll the legs over easy and build back that way. I am not a big fan of running so I would probably give that away (hey you asked what I would do).
June is ages away - you can do a full recovery (no running), do a good build in the new year and be flying by June. Good luck
Two stress fractures in a year for me. My sports medicine doc knows me well (unfortunately). Each time he wagged a finger at me and said ‘this is a 12 week injury’. His advice was spot on. I’m aiming for an A race at the end of April. I have no room for error. Water running, some bike riding, short treadmill sessions as bricks. I’m 14 weeks out from my last injury and still cautious. I’d rather race at 90% than sit at home, reinjured.
When you say diagnosed, do you mean clinically or based on X-rays/MRI or bone scan?
Does your podiatrist look after many athletes?
I have had four stress fractures now. Two nasty ones (tibia and femur).
They are not minor injuries and you do run the risk of doing more serious damage and delaying your recovery by a lot longer if you do not swallow that bitter pill and follow good advice about what you can and cannot do.
From experience (and being an MD myself), I would have thought that swimming with a pull buoy and band, single leg push off and no kicking, would be fine and would help maintain your aerobic fitness. I certainly did that with my nasty tibia fracture.
Impact is definitely to be avoided. So running is out. You are not in a boot?
The other thing is easy spinning on the bike indoors, it should do little to aggravate the injury as long as you are not getting out of the saddle and putting lots of weight through it.
It can be walking a tightrope dealing with these injuries…but hopefully it’s just a few weeks.
There are some other things you can do which may help…bone stimulators can often be rented….they deliver a certain ultrasound frequency which may increase the healing rate….I say may……the evidence may not be that convincing……
Good luck….
I had a left side pseudo jones fracture two years ago.
I was told by an orthopedic specialist that I could do “whatever” as long as I wore the boot.
Swimming: My injury was in early Dec and I had no races for >6 mos so I did not bother with water until the following spring.
When my wife was recovering from a broken ankle, she’d boot to poolside to do pulling sets, and only flip off the wall w/ her good foot.
Bike: I was able to Zwift the entire time.
I put a flat pedal on the left side of my bike and used a heavy duty theraband to strap the boot to the pedal. A bungee cord would have worked, too.
I wore a normal cycling shoe on my right foot.
I dropped my saddle 1cm to account for the lack of ROM on my left side
My wife did the same when she was in the boot.
Running: I did not try running until 4 months after I was diagnosed with the fracture, and when I did, I could feel where the stress fracture was for the following 6 mos.
Thanks to all who replied. I’m following the doc’s guidance. The bone appears to be healing and I’m staying off of it as much as possible. My plan is to assess the recovery at the 4 week mark and maybe start adding in swimming. Going to hold off on load bearing exercise until the doc clears me. Definitely want to make sure my body is strong enough to handle the 2023 season. I’ll wait until I’m released to make decisions about what to cancel, defer, or race in 2023.
