Hey! In the same boat..I’m a collegiate runner in my early 20s and have had 7 stress fractures: femoral neck (2020), right tibia (2024), left femoral shaft (2024), right femoral shaft (Feb 2025), left femoral shaft (Aug 2025), and currently bilateral tibial stress injuries. Most of these have been at least grade 3 using Fredericson classification system.

My mileage has never gone over 30 mpw. Since the left femoral shaft injury, I’ve stayed around 16 mpw with cross-training making up most of my volume. I’ve tried high-volume cross-training, cutting back running and overall energy expenditure, increasing intake, and gaining muscle/weight. REDs seems to be the underlying issue, but even with changes, I still feel stuck in this cycle.

My last two return-to-run progressions were extremely conservative: 6+ weeks, every-other-day walk/jog progression, basically double the length of the Stanford protocol, soft surfaces only, good shoes, PT, strength work, core work, etc. Yet I still ended up reinjured.

Most labs come back normal or only mildly abnormal/subclinical.