it seems that the only thing that i have to blog about these days is the status of injuries. sticking with that theme, i'm here to report that my tricky, stubborn, still officially undiagnosed injury may be a season-ending stress fracture in my right shin bone. my chiropractor and i aren't ruling it out and we still have a few steps ahead of us before we can be certain. at this point it's proving too difficult to determine if the pain is soft tissue or bone related, so next up is a trip to my family doctor to get a requisition form for a bone scan. if it is a fracture it will show up in a bone scan, whereas an xray may not be able to spot it.
for the first time in months (except for when i was on vacation) i didn't do any training this weekend. weekends are vital for my training because it's a time for me to catch up or get in some longer workouts, but this weekend i shut it down hoping that rest, stretching and light strengthening exercises may help out. i was out for a light run this afternoon and the pain was still there, although it did feel slightly better. i'm checking in with my chiropractor tonight so i hope we'll get somewhere.
this is a very hard, frustrating time. even at the best of times when i'm getting in all of my workouts week after week i feel like i'm not doing enough, and now here i am having to force myself to do nothing at all. but i am confident that it isn't a stress fracture. the pain seems to move from spot to spot as my workouts progress; as certain muscles warm up and tire out, the pain shifts around. i can also stand with all of my weight on my right leg and move my knee around without any pain at all, and i've been told that if it is a stress fracture i wouldn't be able to put any load on it whatsoever.
but hey, what do i know? i'll leave the official diagnosis to the experts. if it is a stress fracture my season will be over, i'll be off my feet to recover, and i'll shift my focus to next year much earlier than i'd anticipated. if it's not a stress fracture, i'll work through the pain and do one more race this year before throwing in the towel. i can get through a soft tissue injury but a bone fracture is different. if i don't stop to take care of it immediately i'll be jeopardizing my future in the sport. not exactly something i'm interested in signing up for.
