Posted: 5/15/2007 3:29:45 AM EDT
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I've been running about 6-9 miles a week for the past three weeks and I think I have a stress fracture in my left foot, specifically the small bones on the top. I've made significant gains in my cardio endurance and i'd really like to find an activity that will allow me to keep those gains while letting my foot heal. I've considered cycling but from what I gather I would have to ride like 40 miles to get a similar benefit to running. The only other ideas I've had are perhaps using a treadmill and running less distance but on a higher incline. Any suggestions for comparable activities that won't cause all my gains to disappear? |
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If cardio endurance is your main thing and not running ability, theres a lot of things. Burpees, although you may have to modify them because of your foot. Swinging a sledge hammer is my absolute favorite cardio workout. www.rosstraining.com/articles.html Check out some of this guys articles and the workouts at the bottom of the page for tons more ideas. |
My apologies, I should have been more specific. I was thinking more along the lines of my cardio endurance being the main thing I didn't want to lose with respect to running. I actually would like to find an activity that I can partake in that when I heal up, I wont have to start from scratch with respect to my running ability. |
Swimming? Rowing? Elliptical machines? You can use any aerobic exercise to ensure that you don't lose aerobic conditioning. You'll still lose some of your running endurance during the layoff since you won't be training your legs the same way, but that will come back rather quickly. |
Are you sure you have a stress fracture, or could it be something like plantar faciatis? |
I haven't gone to the doctor about it, but I just figured that given how much i've been running that a stress fracture would be the most plausible problem. I just looked up "plantar faciatis" and I don't think that's the problem. It doesn't hurt when I walk on it, but it starts to hurt after running for a mile or so. It also hurts when I try to flex my toes upward. I'm going to try cycling and maybe the elliptical. I would swim but they just shut down the only pool I have access to until early June. So we'll see how it heals up. ETA: Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. |