Question:
I ran my first marathon almost 2 months ago. The week before my race I had some pain right below my knee, but didn’t think much of it. It later was diagnosed as a stress fracture on the upper part of my tibia. I’ve not run on it for almost 2 months, but have continued to do some crosstraining. I got the go ahead to start running again.

What do you reccommend as a training schedule to start running again?

– S. Pellechia

Answer:
Those who have stress fractures are prime candidates for a repeat
performance if they don’t start back slowly, run every other day, and put
liberal walk breaks into most runs–especially long ones.

Start back by building up a recreational walk to 30 minutes, every other
day. When this feels comfortable, insert a one minute jog, after 4 minutes
of walking for 5-6 sessions. Then shift to 3min walk/1min jog for 5-6
sessions. As long as you feel no aches or pains, continue to increase the
frequency to 2-1, and then 1-1 after stablizing for 5-6 sessions.

You may continue to increase the running ratio in this way until you reach
3min jog, 1min walk. To be safer, maintain more walking. You may be
surprised at how fast you can go with walks: I just heard from a woman who
finished a marathon in 5:14 by running one minute and walking a minute.

– Jeff Galloway