Again with the Shinsplints

I went out for a tempo run Wednesday evening. The plan was to go 15 km, 4 km easy up to the trans-Canada trail, 7 km tempo on the trail, 4 km easy. The tempo pace should have been at 5:25-5:30/km. We had some rain Tues & Wed, so the path was a bit soft. Being my usual bone-headed self, once I got into the tempo portion I picked up the pace, and was running around 5:10/km, then 5:05/km, finally was running around 4:50/km. At the turn around point I was heading into a fairly stiff headwind.

Somewhere around 9 km, my left shin got very painful. The rest of the run wasn't much fun. I'm sure this was a result of going too hard.

I'm kicking myself for not writing down what I did to rehab my other shin in March, but I'm going to try to write it all down now. I found that it took about 3-4 weeks until I was completely comfortable on it again.

1st, icing:

I used a dixie cup frozen, and rubbed it over the painful area for about 10 minutes. I did this daily for about a week.

2nd, stretching:

I found some articles mostly in the forum post linked below, the ones I used were:

1. Lie down on back, extend 1 leg up in air, wrap towel around ball of foot holding onto both ends of towel. Pull one side of towel and it will turn your foot that direction, hold for 30 sec. Pull on other end of towel turning foot opposite direction, hold for 30 sec. Do several times a day. Your ankle is staying at about a 90 degree as you turn the foot inward or outward and your leg is extended straight up. (3x/day)
2. Calf stretches against a wall (2x/day)
3. Eccentric calf stretches on the stairs (2x/day)
4. Sitting stretches: While sitting lift legs onto toes, hold 2 sec, drop feet down then raise toes off ground, hold 2 sec. Do this for about 30 seconds (many times/day).

3rd, Slow Down:

I did my 1st run 2 days after the pain started, but only 5 km on the treadmill and very slowly (6:15/km). I didn't do any runs faster than easy pace for the next 2 weeks.


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Runners World Shin Pain Forum Post