Quote Originally Posted by indysteel View Post


My sophomore year, I joined the cross country team and again ran through some injuries but set some school records in the process. Unbeknownst to me, I had a stress fracture in my foot. Instead of sending me to the doctor, my coach would just tape my foot up really tight and send me on my way. After the run, he'd then make me stand in a bucket of ice to deaden the pain. I walked on the side of my foot for a good three months before finally going to the doctor. I wish I could say that this was in the dark ages of training or something, but it was 1985.
Well in 1995 I had a stress fracture in my left tibia from horrendous shin spints (MTSS) and was on my way to trashing my right. Got it Xrayed too soon (didn't show up), and my doctor was clueless as to why I continued to be in pain weeks later. My coach had me get taped up and I also had to stand in ice buckets and take massive amounts of ibuprofin. It got so bad my ankles started to give out. I couldn't walk up or down stairs--couldn't put all of my weight on one leg at a time. I have nice scarring and the tibia have remapped themselves from that stress such that parts look porous like I have osteoperosis.

My Xrays now look pretty crappy. And running, though not competitively since then, has trashed one of my ankles which may or may not be good as new if I feel like getting a cartilage transplant (from my knee), which I don't want to do. So yep, my running days are over too.

So I had to start doing stuff with no weight bearing or impact. I started cycling indoors on spin bikes. I eventually got bored and wanted to do something competitive again. So I got the road bike. And it's fun! Though i'm going to be far from competitive come spring. That's the hardest thing for me to get used to after being an athlete. I'm not used to sucking so much at a sport I enjoy.