The Low Down on the Break Down

There were a lot of questions on today's post and rather than go about answering individually I figured I’d address them all at once by giving you the play-by-play.

First things first, what started off as the initial problem has ceased to exist and a new one formed in it's place. So what started with the right leg, ended with the left.

Remember that pinched nerve issue I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well I haven’t had a single episode in well over two weeks. Mr. Right Leg has been fit as a fiddle, wondering why he’s not being utilized to capacity.

Enter Mr. Left Leg (who clearly was jealous of all the attention Mr. Right Leg was getting); Two weeks ago I ran the 20 miler turned 13 and immediately followed it up by going to the Ingham County Sports Clinic. Once there I filled them in on all the crazy nerve related activity Mr. Right Leg had been having but that it wasn’t the right leg that ruined the run but rather my left. After my lower back started aching way to early in the run my gait broke down going in to Mile 12 and I had been limping from ol' lefty ever since. They pretty much just wrote it off after poking and prodding it a little and focused on the right leg because of all the issues I had been having with it. Since then I have been hobbling around like Quasimodo confused at what the heck happened and while there have been some good days, it seemed like no amount of xtraining/non-running has helped. The two short runs I attempted earlier in the week left me feeling lost in Limboland because I was running; but hobbling around even worse after.

Last night at the Playmakers Injury Clinic I replayed my story to a specialist that had seen me before during the demise of my Grand Rapids cycle. She was perplexed and referred me to THE MSU doc, the one that works on all the college athletes. I regurgitated my story, again, and he got to work poking, prodding, having me gimp around, etc... Then he looked me straight in the eye and told me he suspected a stress fracture. I cried. I informed him that I do not have insurance, was in the process of acquiring some, and he set to work making arrangements to get me x-ray'd to start the process of confirming his suspicions. In the meantime he wanted me off my leg ASAP and I was to revisit him at the MSU Sports Medicine office first thing in the morning for follow-up x-rays. I hobbled out of the store with a broken heart and spirit. I hope you all will forgive me for not discussing it immediately after, but I didn’t want to throw around such a heavy prognosis without having confirmation.

When I arrived at his office this morning I was whisked into x-ray upon arrival and shortly after we were examining them on the computer screen. He warned me that x-rays don’t always show stress fractures but lo and behold there it was on the screen; an abnormality in my tibia, a stress fracture. On the one hand I had an answer, on the other it was one the one no runner ever wants to hear. He then informed me that if I was going to get one, having it on the back side of the tibia was the best place to get it as they heal well, and then he moved on to my recovery plan which is as follows:

• I’m to hobble around on crutches for up to 10 days or until I can walk without pain, during which time I can only swim.
  
  
• After the 10 days and/or walking without pain is up I can give up the crutches and start to xtrain again via elliptical and cycle.
  
  
• Around May, so long as there is still no pain, I can begin running again. No more than 2 miles, every other day, slowly, on soft surfaces only. (i.e. Track/Trail)
  
  
• By June I can add speed and up to a mile a week but not both in the same week and by July I should be able to resume normal running.

So that’s the plan, man.

And for what it’s worth, I’m so glad I’ve been doing all those NTC workouts because otherwise my arms would be shot from hobbling around on these crutches.

These guns can take the pressure even if my leg can’t.
(And yes those ARE plush Angry Birds in the background... Spike's addiction knows no bounds)