The old anterior tibialis soreness...you're picking up with your toe in order to get over the top. It's just one of those areas you haven't been using before in your pedal stroke. It isn't a true shin-splint injury, caused by tearing of tissue from pounding on the ground. It is just a muscle that is overworked and tired. Ice massage will bring it around in a couple of days. In the meantime, you'll just have to make those lazy hip flexors pick that knee up just a little bit higher while your anterior tibialis is in it's adaptation soreness phase....easy to say, harder to do!

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

I feel compelled to write this given that our last exchange was, regretfully, less than pleasant. Actually I was thinking of you on Saturday, and was hoping that you were racing the Valdese Triathlon. Cash awards were 7deep, male and female. I know you race for the $$$$ and that race had a bunch. Anyway, back to PCs...

Last December I developed the worst case of shin splints I ever had due to WAY too much intensity during my runs and bricks. They were so bad I could barely walk down stairs even on my off day. I could do some aquatic jogging, and then my Coach, Randy Bernard (TriMyCoach) said, yet again, get some Power Cranks. They'll save your run fitness, and help rehab the shin splints. Getting PCs has been on my "to-do" list for sometime (then again, so has building a fix gear, finishing the garage, staining the deck and fence, etc...), long story/short, I bought a pair. I was skeptical at first. My 1st workout on PCs was 3 X 3.5 minutes. Now I'm up to about 90 minutes. Five weeks later I'm running again without shin pain, and I didn't loose any fitness. Actually, I think I'm faster in the run. I'll find out at the White Lake 1/2 Iron.

My shin splints were on the inside of each lower leg, and the pulling-up action actually helped me heal faster. I had fatigue in the same place you were talking about, the muscles on the outside of my shins. Now those muscles have developed. My hip-flexors still get really sore, so I guess I'll need some more PC time. I'll start commuting to work on my PCs this Thursday, if this rain stops.

So the bottom line. Stick with the PCs. Stretch and ice after workouts. Adaptation to PCs came faster than I thought they would for me. Rarely do I go out on a limb for a product, and no Citadel Grad. would ever say anything good about a Naval Academy Alum., but maybe Frank Day has developed something worthwhile here. Too bad he chose to attend "Shipwreck Tech" ;-)

He could have been one of The Lords of Discipline!

Good Luck,

Joel

Joel...Im gonna pick your brain a bit at white lake (if i can find you) re. powercranks as Im intrigued with what you think about them. Big cash at Valdese..my girlfriend brought home 200! Brian Schultz

Cool. I'll be there all weekend. I'll either be with the Insideout folks, or just look for the Mad Dogs. Several of my friends are flying in from out of town for the 1/2 and the sprint. I'm sure we'll be wearing the Mad Dog T-Shirts.

Why wait. I'm working at Insideout this Saturday from 12-5. I can bring my PC bike and you can give it a spin if you want.

"..my girlfriend brought home 200!" - that's awesome. Well, I guess we know who you're dating!!!

See Ya'

Joel

Broll, I too noticed soreness in my shins when first using PC's. Here is a trick. Concentrating on pulling back with your hamstrings and you will find that the momentum almost brings your "recovery pedal" up and over the top. Your timing might be a bit off too. If you are starting to lift too early, your shins will have to do extra work. May as well make the big muscles in the hamstrings do the heavy lifting. The shins only need to be used in the final 5% going over the 12 O'Clock position. The timing sequence that seems to "work" for me is hamstrings-hip flexors-upper quad-shins. Perhaps this might help.

thanks fellas for some great input.....would you keep running with the sore spot or could the tenderness lead to a problem? Joel S, I couldnt win money if my life depended on it!! I just like seeing guys like Yon, Kotland, Dyer and Duroche duke it out...its great for the atmosphere..that 250 yard swim was a bit short for the drive, hope your race went well...

I have been struggling with my running for a while now. I run 3 to 4 miles every other day and always notice soreness on the lower inside of my legs. Ice and stretching have helped. I also notice I can feel that problem area when I ride on the trainer. I just moved my cleat position back on my shoes cause I heard that could help and it has.



Can power cranks be a possible solution to this problem? Could they ultimately help me with my running? What brand?

Most of these "overuse" injuries that people see when starting PC's should be reasonably transient. Backing off a bit, icing, etc. are all good suggestions. As a doctor persistent pain that can't be explained bothers me so, if this doesn't start to improve as you continue to ride a cautionary trip to the doctor may be in order, to make sure this isn't something unrelated to the PC's.

Frank

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

In my case not running was part of the cure, but instead of sitting on a work bench with paint cans on my toes, lifting them up, I rode the PCs. I think they helped. The fact that my pace didn't diminishwhen I returned to running was an added bonus. Actually, I'm a little faster on my tempo runs. I know that sounds weird, but that's what happened to me.

Another thing I did, was to go see a local chiropractor that was certified in Active Release Technique (ART). ART was pretty darn uncomfortable, but it helps. There's a book that shows how you can do it at home(or something similar). The book is call the Painfree Triathlete, but it's a little spendy, like $70.00 or so.

Hope that helps,

Joel

I did the Valdese Tri last Saturday! Wish I would have known anyone else there. I should have known that lots of PC'ers would be there since Sonni and Randy are so adamant about how much they've helped EACH of their athletes that are training on them.

That course would have been perfect to do my first PC race on...no long flat sections, plenty of hills...if I'd have only known, I would have PC'd it. (I still was first in my AG on the bike split, but, I think I could have been faster on PC's on that course.)

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

curiously.... how did you stack up in this race compared to before pc training? i know you are a big pc fan, but are you climbing up the ranks vs familiar names because of them?

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It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to squeeze in 8 hours of TV a day - Homer Simpson

I've always been a decent bike rider. In my younger days I was a good road racer simply because I could hang on to almost anyone or any pack and outsprint them at the end. I was a fast-twitch guy that knew enough about tactics (I used to always hang a ribbon near the finish line so I could see which way the wind was blowing so I knew which side to pass during the sprint), that my results were better than some of the people that were better pure riders. In time trialing...not so good. I had a hard time finishing well in stage races because my TT's weren't good, neither were my hill climbs.

In triathlons, which I started in 1988, I was always in the top 50% of times on biking, and about there on running. I slowly got better as I moved from power to endurance events. I settled in nicely at about top 25%. Along comes PowerCranks, and a sudden realization that I have been wasting a lot of energy pushing up my rising leg with my pushing down leg. Suddenly, after years of averaging 23-23.5mph on a flat 10 mile TT that I'd do 5-6 times a year, I broke 25 mph the one and only time I did that particular TT. Standalone 5K times went from 22 and change to sub 20, triathlon 5K times went from 25-26 to 21-22.

The only thing that changed was PowerCranking. I'm a middle-aged man, closer to 50 than to 40. I've been involved in athletics of some sort all my life. I've coached people in some manner half of my life. When only one thing in training has been changed, and there is a quick and profound difference in performance, it's not that hard to tell what made the difference. If I were young, sometimes a big jump in performance has to do with maturing systems. At my age, big jumps don't happen for that reason.

Most people my age are trying to find ways to hold on to what they had. PowerCranks brought an efficiency to my riding, and a better timed running stride to my running, and now I'm a much better time trialer and runner than I've ever been. Heck, I've had triathlon bike splits that were as good as some of my old stand-alone time trials....then I go out and run a near-PR 5K after that bike split.

If I could just get them to help my swimming....

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)