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Since the middle of last week, I’ve sometimes felt a tingly sensation in my lower left leg.   On Monday I called to make a doctor’s appointment since this didn’t feel like the common muscle/tendon strain injuries I’ve had in the past.  My previous doctor had switched to a different practice since my last visit, so I just asked the facility to give me whoever I could see the soonest.  Like the NY Times article, I did think about asking if they had any doctors who ran, but ended up not bothering to.  I figured I would get a random doctor and would just see how I liked them.  They couldn’t get me in until Friday afternoon.

I have been really reducing my run volume for the last week and bought a  bike (sort of a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike, which seemed a good fit for long rail-trail rides) last Thursday on which I’ve spent about 6 hours riding so far.

I met with the new doctor today and he seemed pretty sharp and communicated well.  His first suspicion was that I had a stress fracture or possibly a tendon issue from the marathon and/or post-marathon running.

He sent me out for an X-ray, which I was able to get taken in about 30 minutes.  That was definitely quicker than I was expecting.  I was able to get printouts of my X-rays, which I thought looked pretty neat.  Hopefully a radiologist will interpret it this afternoon or Monday morning and we will know if it is a stress fracture.  If not, we will see if I am still getting the odd sensations next week, and if so, go for an MRI scan.

I think my biggest failing here was mistaking quick cardiovascular recovery from the marathon to thinking my body wasn’t beaten up.  I should have taken a week off from running and just rode a bike.  Oh well, live and learn.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm and is filed under running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.