Thanks to everyone for the well meaning advice concerning my shin splint problems. I really appreciate it. I must admit I'm still a bit in two minds about where to from here.
Several of you including Eric and Phil suggest a longer break from running might be needed followed by a slow and gradual transition from walking then to running, others including Ewen, and my Podiatrist is even of this opinion, that a little running now should be okay so long as I don't increase the mileage too fast too soon.
In fact the Podiatrist commented yesterday was that a little soreness once I've started back running after a lay off is not unexpected as the muscle gets used to me running again? I explained to him that the soreness was nothing major during the running but just the usual aching afterwards. He seemed happy for me to continue running three times a week but to keep the runs to about 30 minutes at this stage for the next few weeks.
Therefore this is what I've decided;
- I'm going to keep running three times a week, around four to five miles each run for the next three weeks.
- I'm doing a range of stretches and strengthening exercises every night for about 30 minutes to work on increasing my flexibility and muscle strength.
- I'll keep icing the shin when needed but particularly after each run.
I'll reassess things at the end of June and see where we go from there. If there is no improvement then I might seriously need to take Eric and Phil's advice and take a decent amount of time off. As people rightly have pointed out I've got plenty of time ahead of me to reach my goal of one day being in a position to run a marathon. If I need to take some more time off I will but first I want to give it one more shot at overcoming this while still keeping up some running.
Thanks again.
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Running Shin Splints
Thursday, 7 June 2007
To Run or not to Run?
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5 comments:
I have to admit that I hand out that advice much better than I take it. When I pulled my calf back in February, I tried running on it after a week and learned once again why I didn't want to do that. If your professional is telling you that a little running is good, I'd go with there advice.
I'm happy your Podiatrist thinks you can keep up some running.
I hope it's one of those injuries that can be 'run through'. The times I've had shin splints, this had been the case.
The new shoes should help too. Good luck with the next few weeks.
I was just at dinner with a bunch of runners ... the people, not the shoes :-) Anyway we were talking about shin splints and how quite ofte its a result of overstriding. One of my running buddies joined a gym for 12 months just so he could use their treadmill to train himself to run with a shorter stride.
Hopefully though the new shoes are the answer to your problems.
Hopefully the problem will go away soon. Good luck with the continued running.
As long as it's not a stress fracture, you should be fine to run on it some. I think the most important thing is to keep the pace slow. Good luck!
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