Shin Splints - please advise

[Missbossie]

Can somebody advise me?
Since one-and-a-halve week ago I am experiencing "shin splints" .
My right lower leg feels like muscle pain: the inside of the leg and than towards the shin bone feels hard.
It is not continously appearent but walking stairs or getting u from a chair, walking normal for a longer distance
such as 5 km makes me very aware. "Pain" is a subjective word to pass here in writing - let me describe it as muscle pain.
I have first of all given it a three day rest and than did my run W5R1 instead of the W5R3 I was supposed to; it did not at all complete it. My breathing was completely off, I felt as if my step was extremely small as if I was "tightening up" in order to prevent any injury. Strange whilst running the first few minutes with a stiff leg it subdued whilst running longer.
Also I take great care in mu warming-up and cooling down.

Now I have taken a 8 day rest but my injury is still here.
I am afraid to restart, and I am afraid that if I do not restart I will never start again

What to do? What can help?
I have been massaging the leg, using mucle ointments, warm showers with a hard "beam"of water...

Any advise is very welcome, get my back on the track, please

[saintmiko69]

Hi missbossie sorry to hear about your injury problems they can really get you down and demotivate.
I suffer from shin splints every now and then so I know how you feel. What works for me is lots of stretching before and after running. I also suffer from Plantar Fasciitis and found that the stretch exercises I do for that also help with the shins. The exercises have worked wonders for both and I often do them on days I'm not running as well. Here is a link to a site with the exercises I do they have really helped http://www.painfreewalking.co.uk/stretc ... -pain.html

The only other advice I can give is take it slowly and don't rush any injury! If you find you can't run at the moment try some swimming it will keep up your fitness and help to keep you focused and more importantly feel positive.
Good luck!

[Timl2k10]

I felt the Mayo Clinic had the most comprehensive information when I was doing research on shin splints recently. Oddly, I was doing it only because I had had shin splints in the past, usually when starting a running program. But yesterday during the middle of the 2nd run of W5R2 I got them in both legs but worse on my left. I wonder if it had anything to do with switching to running on turf, or if it was just the fact I was running a whole 8 minutes. Fortunately the pain went away during the cool down. I'm really hoping it is not a problem for tomorrow's 20 minute run. I plan to take it real slow.
Unfortunately I have never had shin splints as bad as you describe, they always seem to go away on their own if I slow down or take an extra day of rest.
Take a good look at the Mayo Clinic site, it is very comprehensive.
EDIT: Also a very good list of shin splint articles specifically related to running can be found here.

[Missbossie]

Thanks Saintmiko and Timi for the info links. After posting I continued sear hing on the internet and found some dutch info. Still didn't give me the conslusive answer how to solve the injury quickest but did find a lot a bout the causes.
The mention running on a hard surface ( true for me) , the muscles simply not being trained yet, warming up- cooling down, shoes, running technic, position of your feet ( overpronouncation) , overweight Occurs more with women.
I found: do not run on ignoring it. Take a week rest, than start excercises. (These are not all clear). Also icing it several times a day is mentioned a lot. If this doesnt help there is also a medical treatment orcworse case even a operation possible. The medical explanation of what happens in the leg I will not attempt to explain here in english.

Thanks, I will absolutely look into the links you send me. And will try to be patient.

[Timl2k10]

Keep us posted. I've never had shin splints that bad, but I did have a bad knee injury once and it was so discouraging. I wish you the best on your recovery. Hopefully you can find out somehow what led to the shin splints. I must say it has taken me a long time to listen to my body carefully and prevent overexertion (I still struggle with that). My goal is to keep on running for years to come injury free.

[Tdrice]

Missbossie, I had shin splints that were just horrible. I was dealing with them through every week up till W4. I would rest/ice and stretch to no avail. I repeated weeks but never got better. So in the W4, far behind from where I should have been, I just couldn't bare it. I finished that week and just stopped running. Now here I am about 2 months later and was able to pick up where I left off and do the whole W4 with not a shin splint one. I'm in W5R1 today with no pain at all. I'm thinking that the rest helped me to heal and I started back so slowly, truly expecting all the pain to flood back, but was so shocked and very surprised to have none. I started back running about a 4.2 on the treadmill. Really slow but maybe that's the key. Take care of you and let us know how your doing.

[starknut]

There are lots of articles online that deal with stretches and exercises to help with shin splints, but if you're still not finding the pain easing up, please see your doctor! He or she can refer you to a physiotherapist. Untreated shin splints can lead to stress fractures, which is definitely no fun. Take care, and I hope you feel better soon!