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Shin injury, need advice
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Hi,

I'm struggling with a mild injury. With my country in lockdown i'd think i'd ask for some advice here first. Healthcare system is under a lot of stress and focussing on people in need of urgent care. As they should. Me having a sore leg doesn't fall under that category, and i allready know that my physician will just advice me to take it easy for a few weeks and send me on my way. Making that appointment will be a waste of both his and my time. Normally I would go to a sports oriented physical therapist for advise but for obvious reasons that is a bit difficult at the moment as well.

So i have been having a sore left leg at the inside of the leg near the calf and shin area. I have been gradually increasing my running distance. I run 3 times a week, on pavement only. I am used to running 3 times, one long run, one short easy one and one high intensity interval session on a track with a soft surface. I haven't been able to use the track since march last year. So i don't do the fast intervals anymore since last summer to prevent injury. I have found in the past that swimming helps me to reduce tension in my calfs. I have swam around 5 times since august. All pools have been closed since december 15th and will be at least into march. Open water swimming is not an option for me.

I have been reading about shin splints and that checks some of the boxes for the discomfort i am experiencing. It's probably still a mild injury, ( i'm not limping yet) but i wonder what i can do to prevent it getting worse and maybe also recover from it.

I tried not running at all for a week. Then i did a short run, was fine. Waited 3 days did a slightly longer run and the pain was back the next day. Did some hiking out in the snow and it's getting more and more sore and irritated.

So what to do now? Stop running for a longer time? Strength training? Taping? Compression tubes? Massages? Does any of that really help?

I was planning on doing some ice skating later this week, but that will probably not help either.

Any advice from people who have had experience with this would be much appreciated.
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Re: Shin injury, need advice [Remco] [ In reply to ]
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Not sure if it's shin splints, but if it is, rest, rest, and more rest. I get that this isn't ideal during training, but that's what I went thru. I also had them years back during college soccer season (both inside and outside of the shin), and it was frustrating. Not knowing about your running shoes but a new pair should help. Tape also helped a little but ice and rest seemed to work best.
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Re: Shin injury, need advice [Remco] [ In reply to ]
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Compression socks have helped me. Also Am keeping my runs on dirt trails. My shins and calves really flare up after starting to run on brick days. Frustrating for sure some days feel like its gone away completely.
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Re: Shin injury, need advice [smallhips] [ In reply to ]
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smallhips wrote:
Compression socks have helped me. Also Am keeping my runs on dirt trails. My shins and calves really flare up after starting to run on brick days. Frustrating for sure some days feel like its gone away completely.

+1 on compression gear

I use compression calf sleeves post-workout and overnight. I use sleeves (instead of socks) since I can wear them multiple times between washings. My go to pair are some $12 coolmax compression socks from one of those medical supply catalogs that I cut the feet off of. I have some nicer CEP and Zoot ones, but save them the wear and tear.

Shin splints are the caused by the soft tissue pulling away from the tibia; the compression gear presses everything together to help things heal faster.

ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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Re: Shin injury, need advice [Remco] [ In reply to ]
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A few things:

1. If your shoes are old, buy new ones. I’ve helped a number of athletes complaining of shin pain and simply turned their shoes over. If the outsole is wearing down the midsole gave out weeks and maybe months ago. Running on a hard surface is harder on your shoe. If you are trying to get the same amount of running out of a shoe on the road compared to the trail this could be the problem.
2. Think about the swimming motion or kicking motion, your foot is in planter flexion which is good for the shins.
3. Try this: Sit in a chair with your legs extended. You can do single leg or double leg. Lift and start with 10 revolutions of pointing your toes in plantar flexion and then pulling them back into dorsi flexion. Start with once a day for a week then do it twice a day. This is not a guarantee to work but it’s worked on 80- 90% of the shin splint problems I’ve ever come across. I will say most of those have been with teenage athletes.

Dave Jewell
Free Run Speed

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Re: Shin injury, need advice [SDJ] [ In reply to ]
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Thank all you guys for your advise.

I just got two pair of new shoes in january (i decided to help put a local sports shop that is having a tough time due to corona lockdown, so they sent the shoes in the mail.) Both a newer model of the same shoes i have used for the past couple of years.

I have a couple pairs of calf tubes. They have some compression. Normally i use them for warmth when it's too cold for shorts eventhough i prefer shorts. I wore both tubes on my left leg under my pants to work today and they helped with the pain.

The stretching exercises i will have to try and see if that works.

Running on trails or soft surface will be diffcult because i live in a city. However there's currently about 15 centimeters of snow where i live so that should be plenty soft :-) At the moment i'm mostly running with boots in the snow pulling a sled with my 4 year old girl on it. "Faster daddy, faster"
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