The number one question I get from runners is "How long is it going to take me to heal this injury?" It could be a metatarsal stress fracture, it could be plantar fasciitis, it could be an Achilles tendon injury. Then the follow-up question is always "How soon will I be back to running?"

 

The whole underlying premise of those questions is completely absurd. All of us want to believe it takes some certain given timeline for every given injury to resolve. And that’s just crazy! I get this question from doctors at medical conferences and they’ll ask me,"How long does it take for a fourth metatarsal stress fracture to heal in the average runner and how long would it take for them to get back to running." But that doesn’t make sense. It’s not that simple...