Cleared for Takeoff

Today was my follow-up appointment with the sports medicine doctor. He took a look at my X-ray films and said that he did not see any evident calcification of concern (so maybe not a stress fracture, after all!) but that X-Rays are not always determinative for stress fractures. Nonetheless, he doesn't think any additional imaging (MRI, CT-scan, etc) is warranted at this time since my pain is largely gone and I have been able to hop up and down without any pain for going on two weeks now. He said he doesn't need to see me again unless the pain gets progressively worse after I have resumed running.

I brought my new running shoes (ASICS GT-2120's) to the appointment and he took a careful look at them and agreed they are appropriate for me. He said that this particular shoe is a well constructed motion control shoe, and looks like it would give moderate support to help correct my over-pronation. He confirmed for me that my pronation is moderate. He also was not particularly concerned about the arch support: he took the shoe inserts out of the shoe to examine them. He told me that based on my low arches (my right is flatter than my left, he told me), I will definitely feel the rise of the insert against the bottom of my foot, but that unless it is causing me discomfort or blistering, it is okay to feel the arch support. He suggested that if it does cause any discomfort, I could consider replacing the insert with a store-bought over-the-counter one which will likely be less archy, but that I should try it as it is first. He said that this shoe was much better than the Nike I had with me the first time, since Nike has high-arch support and is more designed for cushioning than for motion control. He said I don't need cushioning, just the motion control. He also said that I don't have to toss out the Nikes, just that I shouldn't run in them. They're not going to cause me problems if I wear them while out and about, they just don't give me what I need while running.

He suggested that I start back at 50% of where I was when I got injured, that I run 2-3 days a week at first, and that I see how I feel in the day following. If my ankle is hurting and the pain persists more than 24-48 hours, I should dial it back. Otherwise, I should increase at a rate of 15% a week until I'm back where I was before the injury, and then go forward from there. Personally, this seems a little more aggressive then what I've seen suggested on the Cool Running boards. The advice I've generally seen on the board is that it takes two weeks to recover for every week away. Since I've been away for about six weeks, I'm expecting it to take about 12 to recover. I've also seen it generally suggested not to increase more than 10% a week. Given that, think I'm going to take a more conservative approach than what he suggested: I'm going to start C25k over again from the beginning. I do plan to attend my first 5k run, on April 14, but I'll walk it.

Looks like my days of sleeping late (until 6 AM) are over. It is good to be back!