Since I ran the Christchurch Marathon I've had a pain in my leg and a nagging thought...
Yesterday I finally relented to the soreness that had improved a lot but wasn't going away, and went to see my physio. I figured it was probably just a tendon or something but it was reminding me a bit of the stress reaction I'd had last year - not a full stress fracture but on its way to becoming one.
Getting that diagnosed was a bit of a debacle as I had muscle soreness in the same area as well so that's how my physio was treating it. After several weeks of setbacks I went to see a sports doctor who sent me off for an X-ray and was able to diagnose the problem correctly.
I didn't think that's what it was this time but the possibility was still there. After a bit of painful prodding my physio wrote a referral to have an X-ray immediately. She called today with the result, they can see some disturbance in the bone so it's 3 weeks off running then another X-ray, at which time they should be able to get a better idea of what's going on (ie how bad it is).
So it's yet another disappointment for me but the good news is that I'm allowed to bike and swim as much as I like. I've suggested to my coach that we increase the swimming and biking to compensate for the lost training hours but I'm leaving the final programme up to him. I think I'm far enough out from Wanaka that it shouldn't cause me any major issues but this is really something I can do without.
The thing that frustrates me most is that I used to run with terrible technique with plenty of full-speed downhill on tarseal with no ill effect. Last years stress reaction came after I introduced some speed work a bit too quickly, but this time around I've had some good technique coaching as well as a structured programme and no more of that crazy downhill running so I'm at a bit of a loss to explain it. This is something I'll be discussing in great detail with the doc and physio as I recover as I am totally over being injured and do not want this happening again.
