Running Summary July 2021

My mysterious injury persisted this month; the symptoms were tightness in the hamstrings and glutes, pain and stiffness in the backs of my upper legs when walking downhill, and similar pain when coughing or inhaling quickly.

I did some web searches and found a blog post, You CAN Recover From A Pelvic Stress Fracture In 3 Months, in which the writer’s symptoms matched mine. A post by a different author, How I Survived A Pelvic Stress Fracture, was also useful.

These authors advised no running, no cross-training, resting as much as possible, and regular strengthening exercises and Pilates if they didn’t hurt. They wrote that it takes three months or more to recover.

I found what appeared to be an authoritative article, Pelvic stress fracture: a rare but real risk in distance athletes, by Adam Smith for Sports Injury Bulletin, which provided the following advice:

A lower-limb strengthening program can be implemented quite early in the rehabilitation process initially starting with non-weight bearing exercises, which can be progressed as the athlete is able to weight bear without pain.

I decided not to visit a doctor since about all that could be done would be to run scans that could confirm the injury. After that, it’s a matter of waiting for the fracture to heal.

I continued with stretching and Pilates, but I reduced my walking as much as possible.

The end of July made it two months since when I first experienced my symptoms, so perhaps I’ll be recovered by September.