I had a navicular stress fracture in 2011, which took forever to heal.
Finally this year I started back up with 4 sprint distance races and I am running the 5k pain free (although a tad stiff in the food still here and there).
I am now looking to make a plan that will gradually take me from mid September to May 2015 increasing both distance and speed as I go.
I am running the 5k off the bike in about 21 minutes at the moment and would like to get back into Olympic distance races next year. Goal would be to run the 10k in 40min or better off the bike, emphasis on staying injury free.
Does anyone have any recommendations and / or sources?
You appear to be asking more for a training plan rather than a return from an injury plan since since your stress fx was in 3 years ago?
Navicular stress fractures are notoriously slow healers, but not that slow!
A combination I guess, yeah I need a training plan, but with emphasis on a really slow (over 6 months or so) increase. I only do about 20k a week right now and want to increase both length and speed of my workouts, while staying injury free. Most plans out there are covering 10 - 16 weeks max and start off with way too high intensity for my liking.
Yes it healed EXTREMELY slow spent 2x6 weeks on crutches and had 3 MRIs over 2 years and was already scheduled for surgery when a last MRI confirmed that it has miraculously healed after all.
might also consider alternating a heavy cushion shoe into the rotation. i know there are a lot of hoka one one haters out there but it really does well with this type of injury. I work at a running store and we have a lot of luck with the brand.
i’d stay away from the stiff or super light stuff like conquest/clifton/rapa nui/huaka and go for a heavy cushioned shoe like the stinson or bondi.
i had a similar problem with my navicular many years ago. very painful.
good luck.