My Theories on the Causes

I have had well over a week now to stew and think about what was the real cause of the stress fracture.

I am also going to state that I still do not believe it is a stress fracture. I know I can not argue with a doctor, because he is the one that looked at the x rays and they revealed the fracture. Even knowing this, my gut is still saying it is not.... maybe I still do not want to believe it.... but I just wanted to say what I thought for the record :)

On to what I think caused it.

1. The Brooks Ghosts (the name is so fitting for the situation... the Ghost is HAUNTING me!)

Remember the 24 mile relay I did? Well, I got these shoes 2 days before the race. I wore them for a 3 mile run and then wore them around the gym doing weights. Then I ran the relay. Up until this day I was wearing the Nike Volmero's 

The Volmeros are a very cushioned shoe. Most people compare these to running on marsh mellows. The Ghosts do not have any cushion when compared to these. It was probably the dumbest move on my part, to run 24 miles in shoes that my feet were not used to. Honestly, it never even crossed my mind that it would be a problem. I just put them on and went and never thought twice about what I was doing. The pain in the foot did not really appear for another week. The pain came right after my next long run which was the following Saturday. I definitely think these shoes played a HUGE role in the fracture. My feet were not used to running in non padded shoes and there I was running 24 FAST miles in them. Then I turned around and ran 16 miles the next week- even faster in these shoes. I should have broken them in before going straight into the long runs.....

The next theory...

2. My form.The coach I run with has been telling me for a few months now that I land on my heels and I should make a conscious effort to land more on my fore foot.... Well, I had been trying during every single run to land on my fore foot rather than my heels. The metatarsals are in the forefoot area! With that said, I think this is another contributing factor. I had been landing more on my toes and putting the pounding impact on my metatarsals and on top of this, I put the Ghosts on, and the poor metatarsals that were pounding had no cushion!!! 

Regardless of the cause, I am thoroughly enjoying my swimming, biking and weight training right now!!! Someone asked me today "Are you over not being able to run" ... aka are you done whining and being a baby about not running? My response - yes actually I am. I am having so much fun with my new activities that I am not missing it as much, and I am not depressed I am actually very excited!! Now, please do not get me wrong, I am craving one of my 8 mile runs right now and would do anything to be able to do it!!!! I am just at peace with the situation and loving the newness that I have found :)