Tibial Troubles

In October I got off my bike and handed in my bib at North Carolina 70.3. That was the plan since I'd been having leg pains and not running. Around that time I took over a month off running. Then I returned to super short run/walks 2-3 times a week. It was clear that although the pain was better, the problem was still there. After dealing with the hell that is doctors appointments, insurance and getting MRI approvals, I finally got a scan mid-November. 

Grade 2 stress fracture in my tibia. This was a shock. Let me give some background to explain why. End of July I first started feeling the pain in the middle of an 8 hour car drive. My sister went into labor so I did the quickest packing job of my life and headed to VA. The two days before included other traveling/driving and therefore less training. Obviously one does not get a stress fracture from constantly accelerating and braking in traffic. However, I felt it in my run the next day. The pain varied from there but never that bad. I thought surely a stress fracture would hurt more. My coach and PT all thought it was a soft tissue issue. 

In summary, this was the sequence of training around the onset of pain:
 - Friday: 40min treadmill run
 - Saturday: Strength + 1hour trainer ride
 - Sunday: Swim followed by running around like a headless chicken packing and driving to VA (had to skip my ride)
 - Monday - First run in which I felt pain

The month leading up to this I was running consistent, low mileage (around 15 mpw). I was eating a health, balanced diet with no weight swings. I certainly was not under-eating (not my style, I love food too much). After reviewing my MRI, the doctor asking about all of that plus:
 - How many marathons I'd run that year: zero
 - Changes in training: nope, normal moderate amounts of swimming, cycling and strength training
 - New or very old shoes: nope, normal rotating in replacements of same models
 - Skipped periods: nope

My doctor, coach and PT were all perplexed for the reason this happened. Sometimes I wonder if I accidentally hit my leg on something while frantically packing given how accident prone I am. I often have bruises or cuts I don't remember getting. I do have a clear memory of my husband telling me to slow down or I'd hurt myself. 

My doctor had blood drawn to test Vitamin D. I never heard back about results so I called. They said it was normal and I had to specifically ask for the number: 34.9ng/mL. The problem is "normal" ranges don't normally reflect the most recent medical research and certainly not research on athletes. I pulled out all my books and found all the research articles I could and as a female athlete I should be at least at 50ng/mL. My PT looked like she was going to smack me when I told her how low my level was. Really its not surprising it was low. I do 80% of my training before the sun comes up or indoors and 18% outside of the peak sun hours. I come from a family of vampires with a skin cancer history who are always lathered in sunscreen, coverups and under umbrellas. Aka I avoided the sun like the plague. All that said, low vitamin D was probably a contributing factor. 

Irrelevant of the cause, the end result was the same. Stress fracture. In a boot for 6+ weeks. I started my year being helicopters off Kilimanjaro (still a story for another time) and ended in a boot. That about sums up the love hate relationship I have with my body.