Not Making the Same Mistake Twice

It has been very hard for me to tell if any pain has returned to my leg.  In a way, it is certainly a good thing because it means that my leg is substantially better than it has been in a while.  On the flip side, if I want to avoid further complications, it can be difficult to decide when to back off.

Monday: 3 miles, easy-moderate pace + bike to and from work.  Towards the end of this run I experienced a little more than just mind games.  I think I may have had a slight twinge in my leg by the end of this run.  It went away pretty quickly.  On a scale of 1-10 with (1) being "fake pain" and (10) being the pain of a stress fracture, I would give it about a 2, maybe 3 if I was feeling generous.  Despite feeling the pain, kneeling down and jumping on my leg did not aggravate it (tests that once caused terrible pain).  I decided to proceed as normal.

Tuesday:  The plan was 6 miles total with 3 at tempo pace, first time running hard since my 5K.  I also biked to and from work today.  After starting, I experienced an ever so slight twinge that stayed there as I continued to run.  Other parts of me hurt more, and normally, I would not even notice pain this slight.  However, it was in the area of my stress fracture.  I threw caution to the wind and decided to just can the whole run.  There is no point in forcing the issue.

From what I have read, heard from my doctor, and other runners, it is possible and likely to experience pain in the region, even if it is nearly 100% healed.  You just have to listen to it and be careful.  So that's exactly what I'm doing.  I have had pain before that I've run through and watched it fade away.  It is possible that this too is nothing and could just fade into the background.  However, ignoring it cost me nearly 8 weeks and 3 races.  I won't fall into that trap again.

I also need to be careful with the bike.  Though it is not directly causing any pains, if I ride to work everyday, run 5 or 6 days, and do a long ride on the weekend, I don't really end up with a full day off.  That could be a trap to watch out for, as the bike certainly adds stress that I would not normally experience in running sub-30 mile weeks.  I may or may not run easy Wednesday.  I'll probably also drive into work on Wednesday, just to give my legs a rest.  On Thursday, I'll go for 5 or 6 miles (no tempo pace) and see how it feels after that.