MRI of my stress fracture and becoming a triathlete

Stress fracture of the base of my 4th Left Metatarsal

I finally got an MRI of my left foot, and lo and behold - there's an image-confirmed stress fracture of the base of my 4th toe. The reason I actually got this MRI was not to simply prove that I had a stress fracture, but to distinguish between where the fracture was, since fractures fractures of the 5th (pinky toe side) metatarsal often require surgery due to poor healing, and I've only had a small decrease in local pain in my foot over the past 5 weeks. The good news is that it's NOT the 5th metatarsal, and is in fact the more commonly fractured 4th MT, which almost never requires surgery (whew!). I haven't yet seen an orthopedist yet, but I plan to schedule a meeting in the near future just to keep tabs on this injury since it's taking quite a while to heal.

The slow recovery I am experiencing with this injury has pretty much caused me to give up any hope whatsoever of maintaining marathon-tuned legs during my convalescence. There is simply no non-weightbearing motion that sufficiently replicates the running motion to effectively maintain marathon-specific running ability in the legs after 8-10 weeks off. I also tend to overdo it during recovery phases as well, so I'm closing the door on running completely until I feel that my foot is near-completely healed.

I'll admit that I was quite depressed about my fading fitness in the first few weeks of the injury. Despite biking, swimming, and pool running, I felt like I was losing all the fitness that I'd worked so hard for in the past 2 years, and to top it off, I was god-awful at all 3 of those cross-training activities. However, I knew this downphase would happen, and I was also fully aware that the situation would be a temporary rest period that I could potentially turn into a valuable foundation for triathlon training, so I have continued to forge ahead with the swimming and cycling in full force.

Things definitely turned a corner in the past 2 weeks. I really got into swimming basics a la "Total Immersion" as per my prior posts, and made some really big strides in my swimming ability, progressing to being able to cruise smoothly and solidly for an hour straight (albeit very slowly!) I'm definitely still in the category of rank beginner swimmer, but I'm feeling confident enough in my swim now that I think I'll be able to tackle open-water triathlon style swims in the near future. The speed of my progress in swimming was much faster than I imagined, and I'm already starting to target future duathlons or triathlons to test my mettle in the water.

Cycling is also coming along as well. I've been grinding it out on the indoor bike at the gym, 40-60 minutes per day. My legs are finally "catching up" with my cardio ability, and I can manage to put up a solid workout at 130-140bpm for 60 minutes without my legs prematurely fatiguing from the cycling motion. I still have a LOT of cycling work to be done, but I've made important inroads into feeling like a real cyclist, versus being just a runner on a bike. Now that I've established the base training, I plan to progressively increase the distance of my rides by 5-10 minutes per week until I get to 2 hour rides (ideally - we'll see if it actually happens.)

I've also brought weightlifting back into my life. Despite my small body frame, I used to be very serious about weightlifting for over a decade, and only recently stopped lifting weights due to the demands of marathoning. I still believe that upper body mass does nothing but decrease marathon performance, but since I don't envision myself ever contesting for a marathon win, I'll take the health benefits of moderate strength as a fair compromise in performance. Greased up flexing pose photo shots of my monstrous pecs will come in a later post - just kidding!

I'll admit that I still have yet to establish a structured cross-training schedule, but I think I need to establish the base training before planning any goals. I'm almost there though - after these rapid initial gains are harvested, I can take a real stab at seeing what I'm capable of. My current long-term assessment of the upcoming months is that I'll need at least 6 more weeks of non-running to really have my foot fully healed, and then some gradual low-mileage base training for 12-18 weeks before planning another assault on the marathon. I anticipate that becoming a triathlete for the next 6-9 months may be the best compromise to minimize reinjury of my foot while maintaining the training volume necessary to perform well at longer endurance races.

I know most of you are probably reading my latest posts, and wondering: "What about the Boston Qualifier?" Rest assured - I'm still in 100% for this one. After pounding out the Pfitz 18/70+ for the last 2 years, I'm still foaming at the mouth to get another shot at this one, in perhaps cooler conditions than the San Diego marathon. The main thing now is to not get overzealous and reinjure my foot, while maintaining the proper mindset and space in my schedule to continue training for endurance events.