Today I got an email from a woman in South Africa who had found my blog and sustained the same injury I did last weekend in a race. I was so happy (well not happy for her of course!!) but happy that I can now pay it forward and help out someone else. When I first injured myself 7 weeks ago I searched the internet (unfortunately too much Google) and came up with a few people whom I contacted to get their first hand experiences with pubic ramus stress fractures. It was so helpful to me, to read their positive stories and to get emails with timelines (although everyone’s healing time is different, it can be used as an estimate), comebacks and what they did to maintain a positive attitude during their healing.

I am now 7 weeks into my healing. I am at that middle ground point. No longer acute (I really don’t feel it unless I do the odd thing that I know makes it sore, like kicking in the pool and squatting on that leg straight up, oh and I imagine running!! ….. ) but at the point where the brain says “go, you’ve been good and patient” and the body and medical science say “it ain’t time yet”. I go through phases of being okay with not running, and then phases of I just want to go out and run. When you have a stress fracture, you have no choice but to not go out and run. It’s so different from a soft tissue injury. With soft tissue injuries, oftentimes in the acute or sub acute phases you may know you should be resting it better, but if you went out you aren’t going to break it again! I am still trying to focus on the positive and what I can do athletically. Although for that too I need to alter my thought process into “rehab vs training”. I can water run and wrote an article recently for Mizuno Run Club. I have recently tried the elliptical for two short stints and it feels okay. I am still just pulling in the pool. I can kick, but it just does not feel right. The physio in me says my glut (aka “ass”) muscles are still quite weak so the kick requiring that muscle and high hamstring don’t have all cylinders firing so it is pulling on the area. My infinite wisdom knows it’s likely okay but I am just going to lay low on that for another week or two or until it does not feel as wonky. Strengthening the glut muscles is also a priority.

My Aquajogger ready for action!

I have also started to cycle on my bike trainer. My tri bike actually feels pretty comfortable. Must be my newish ISM saddle. I love it! I am planning on going outside tomorrow on the roads (I ride my trainer outside in the summer and spring when it is nice and light out at 6 am.) I am nervous to go outside, but I know it will be fine. Really the only thing that can truly flare me or set me back is if I were to jump/run and I have no intention of doing that until I am told I can. Or until after August 17th when I go to NYC with my daughter. Nothing is going to jeopardize my ability to walk that city and go on that trip! So I will wait until then anyways and hopefully it will be good and ready to start a very progressive walk run program.

My daughter is having a great time at camp or so I can tell from the photos I see. I miss her a ton.

Clearly having an awful time so far.

I have lots of free time which is nice, but as I have said before I don’t do well with too much “me time”. Maybe this is a fault and maybe it’s just who I am. A friend said to me today “as long as whatever is your nature or what you are doing is not harming you in any way whether it be physical, mental, time , etc is alright”. I will remember that. I sometimes fault myself or think it is not “good” to be a certain way. It is who I am though.

Finally, I am keeping tabs on the race scene out there in Ontario. I always looked up results of races I did not do to see how I may have placed in my category. C’mon, lots of us do this!! It makes me frustrated sometimes though because I think to myself, why can’t I be out there too. Why am I the one on the sidelines when it just seems so easy to get out and race and run. Not easy in an effort sense, but easy in a sense of getting out there and participating. I know I can’t think that way. I am responsible for what happened. I wore myself down. I was not smart in my comeback. I did not listen to the signs of fatigue and stress. I may have been compensating for my foot although it was not pain, it was something I had thought about as I was running at least for the first week or two back.

Things are so much better than they were even 2 weeks ago and I am so thankful to have found a wonderful online support group of elite and not so elite runners and triathletes. It always helps to have someone else who you sort of “know” vs. Mr. Google to guide you along and lend support . I am so happy to be able to do the same and I hope that whomever is Googling “pubic ramus stress fractures” can come across my blog and get some solid info. Being a Physiotherapist too, allows me to be able to be realistic in the healing times and the do’s and don’ts although I will admit to having someone else along to guide me!! “Physio do not treat thyself”.

Enjoy your tri’s , runs, weekends, etc this summer. This weekend is a long weekend here in Canada, so I am going to enjoy the nice weather, sort of quieter city and hanging with my husband and some friends. Happy Canada Day!!