Broken Foot? - My winter

 Ah yes. I should have posted this quite a while ago. In fact, it was originally an instagram post, way back in December last year, and pertains more to then, rather than now (May), however, it's a story worth going back over again. 

In August last year I was getting pretty pissed off with my ecsema. It's on and off bad but by this point it had become intolerable. There was a point where a short course of oral steroids were prescribed, which I really wasn't sure about- the side effects of long term usage can be pretty shocking- and long term isn't "long" at all. Bone thinning, risk of infections, potential weight gain, etc etc, and some which are quite a bit worse. At only 2 weeks I thought it was worth doing, just to see.

In a word: miraculous. The Ecsema cleared up immediately, and for 2 weeks I lived like a "normal" person. Incredible. 

Now, those steroids did not continue, something else came in instead, but that's another story, but I wonder if that short course of steroids had a bearing on what happened relatively soon after: There was a bit of a running trial, and I ended up hammering down a rather rocky gully at dusk- this is in early September- my foot went down hard into a rock wedge and there was a sharp pain. Something like a low twisted ankle. (for those of you who care- not a twist to the ATFL, but rather, between the 5th met and the cuboid). Not to worry- I've run on this kind of thing before, so I battered on down the descent and finished the trial. My foot hurt a bit, but nothing more worrisome than that. 

Time marched on, I carried on running with a hurty foot, figuring it was no more than a bit of a sprain. I ran the Hodgeson brothers relay with Chris in October, it still hurt. I carried on running into November, and it was getting to the point where it just wasn't getting better. In fact, the morning after a run it was so bad that I could barely put weight onto the foot. It warmed up a bit after a few minutes, but it was this pattern that make me think.... ah. This isn't right. 

Not *really* hurting when running, but pain in the morning that goes off after a while. If it was a tendon I'd probably have called this tendonitis, and it certainly wasn't behaving like a sprain. In fact it was probably behaving more like a stress fracture. Hmmm. I know that Chris wants to do the Old County Tops in May- and I have 2 choices here....:

1) ignore it. It's probably a sprain, train through winter, grit your teeth with the end game being that it *might* be ok, but then again, I *might* get to March, find out I can't run because it's a stress fracture that has got worse, and then really screw up any decent attempt at the OCT. 

or

2) get a second opinion. If it *is* a stress fracture, at least I can take time off over December, let it heal and then get back onto my feet at the beginning of the year. 

I chose 2, and bundled off to see Colin (@colpod) over in Hathersage. Always nice to see a fellow pro- I gave him the story and my suspicions, and his response after a quick examination... "It's quite boney, isn't it?". 

Shit. 

5 or 6 weeks off running. Ok. This is NOT a problem. The Uni semester was just finishing, it was just coming into December, the weather was not what you would call clement, and cycling was the "go to" thing to do. Zwift, here we come. 

The turbo trainer got an absolute hammering over the winter. I didn't run a step, but rode a lot- this was also in preparation for the Dirty Reiver. Once it got to January I started to do small walk/runs. These were initially done on a treadmill- not because I like treadmills- no... because I HATE them. There was no way I was going to be able to overdo a session as they are so tedious to run on. 

1 min run 1 min walk x5? Fine. I'll get off straightaway. Try to get me to do it outside and I'd be chomping at the bit to go further- unwisely, of course- and end up over doing it. And so the rehab and recovery went. Coming into March I was managing some 10k runs, and the occasional 15k on the hills with no problems with the foot. Everything was on course for getting back to decent training for the OCT. Brilliant. 

Then Exams came and the whole thing went out the window, really- but the important thing was- by the middle of april, I could run 20k without worrying about my foot at all. (my legs and lungs were a completely different matter). Yes, it had taken a while, and yes, I was super cautious in terms of my getting back into running, but let's face it... 4th in the Old County Tops this weekend just gone is a pretty decent place to be considering I had a stress fractured foot back in November. 

The moral? Early diagnosis- or at least, don't keep bashing on through just because you have a race planned. Listen. Modify your habits if need be. Be sensible. Have a plan for getting back to running. Go easy. It's better to sort it out now than kick the can down the road and be REALLY annoyed you can't do that big race.