Anyone recovered from a tibial stress fracture?

18 years ago I experienced stress fractures in both tibias, my left femur, and a bone in my left foot. I was young and bull-headed and thought the pain was muscular, so I kept working out really hard for a month before I went to a doctor. As a result, I get shin splints a bit easier than what I observe other folks experiencing. Over the last few years I've learned how to train around the residual problems and I've been able to avoid the long breaks in training.

I completely understand the concern about re-injuring your leg. What works for me may not work for you, but here goes: work up in distance and speed a little slower than you would have in the past, and if your shin starts to hurt, ice it and take an extra day or two off and remind yourself that the rest will allow you to improve more than running on the pain would. 

I experience the aches you describe, but I don't know if they're a result of the stress fractures, or something else. I imagine my shins are a little more sensitive than they would have been otherwise, but I really don't know because this is all I've known for a long time. For better or worse I've accepted the aches as part of life and I've learned to keep going. So long as the pain doesn't exactly mimic what I experienced with the fractures, I try hard to not be worried. I don't always succeed, but I try.

x2

This. Have had two tibial stress fractures, same leg. That pretty much means I'm an idiot, so I've tried to learn my lesson.

I also do get the aches and twinges, but I use caution as described. As long as the pain doesn't occur on two successive runs, or doesn't seem to persistently be in one spot, I'm okay.

this is good information. my wife has been battling one for the past year (boot, though she was healed (cleared by the dr) ran and then experienced pain again.. re-check with bone scan to find out it never healed). Now finally out of the boot, but not even close to running again, just walking around sans-boot for now end goal is MCM in October..

Good info, thank you.

Thanks for all the tips.  It doesn't hurt while running and I remember when it happened a few years ago it definitely hurt during the run.

It actually bothers me most when I'm at rest, just sitting around, like right now it feels a bit sore and achey.  Don't think there's a real tender spot, mostly just a general ache down the inside shin of the one leg.  But I can't help feeling that I might just be a month or so away from a stress fracture.  My training is not real intense, I run 2-3 times a week, 2-4 miles at a time, slow pace and still take some walk breaks, so I don't think I'm overdoing it from that perspective.

Oh, this thread makes me feel so much better. I was diagnosed with a tibial stress fracture last July, took SIX MONTHS off running, and started out slowly again this January (I'm up to a whopping three miles... baby steps). I also still get the occasional twinge and ache -- and they all have me on edge, freaking out, worried that I'm reinjuring myself. My orthopedist warned me it would take some time for the muscles to build back up and that I would be sore, so I figured a lot of it was just that. I also get many more twinges when there is a cold weather front coming in.

At my last appointment I got to see the bump on the xray where the bone was building back up, plus taking six months off, plus no real reason for getting one in the first place (ortho said it was probably a freak occurrence in the bone-regenerating cycle)... means I am probably just being paranoid. But I sure don't want to have to take another six months off -- that was torture!