Update on Recovery

It's been a month since I stopped running.  My symptoms are finally starting to dissipate, but I feel like I am still a ways away from getting back out on the roads.  While an x-ray revealed no major fractures in my hip/pelvic area, it is likely I suffered from either a stress reaction or stress fracture on my pubic ramus bone based on my symptoms.  Since the only way to know for sure that I have a stress fracture is to undergo an expensive MRI, and since the recommended treatment for a stress fracture is to continue resting, my doctor and I agreed that unless my symptoms take a sudden turn for the worse, the most affordable course of action is to continue resting and monitoring progress.

Initially, it felt like I was riding on a bicycle seat 24/7 - not painful, but definitely not comfortable.  Thankfully, my everyday routine habits (putting on pants, walking up and down stairs, carrying weighted objects - like Penelope) are back to being routine without some sharp reminder that I have an injury.  In fact, unless I try to jog or jump or do anything super stressful with a lot of weight-bearing force, I wouldn't even know that I am still mending.  The danger is trying to jump back on the saddle too soon, which could set me back to where I started and the past month of rest would mean nothing.  So I am playing it super safe instead.  I did discover that I am now able to ride the stationary bike without aggravating anything, so I am hoping to keep up fitness with cross training.  Once Janine's parents open up their pool for the summer, I plan on getting some swimming and aqua jogging in as well. 

I will continue to think long-term (i.e., past this year) and build my fitness back slowly.  If anything, I learned that being really fit doesn't necessarily have to come from training hard and doing super challenging workouts - it comes from being healthy enough to string together long periods of uninterrupted training.  I am not ready to set any goals for myself in the near future - just looking to listen to my body's signals and follow wherever they may lead.