Ok, I have been to the doctor, he says shin splints. I am just worried he is incorrect, and I am considering going to see another doctor or possibly a PT.
Here are the details:
Location: Lower leg, 3 inches above the bone on the inside of the ankle. It hurts on the back inside part of my leg.
When: This varies a bit, and I am overly sensitive to the area now, so I will be as general as possible. It does not hurt when walking or resting. It only slightly hurts when running. No pain cycling or swimming. It really doesn’t hurt at all unless I press on the area. However, there is a slight dull pain that comes and goes, nothing bad at all. When I run, it does sometimes feel a little tight, but not that bad. I first noticed it when massaging my lower legs with “the stick”, and this is the most common way for me to cause the pain. The pain only occurs with pressure, and immediately goes away after.
How Long: I have had this issue since the first part of November. I quit running after the first week of November, and did not run at all until just after Christmas, when I tried a couple of days, still felt pain, so called the doc. Went in two weeks ago, He told me it was shin splints, and that if I didn’t feel pain while running I should be fine, so I started running again last week. I have done 4 days so far, and the pain was back after the second run. My runs were 2, 3, 3, 4 miles in that order, basically every other day. I ran all runs at marathon pace or slower. I never felt that I was pushing it at all.
I am concerned because I feel that shin splints should have probably gone away after all of that rest. I mentioned this to my doctor, and he kind of shrugged it off, said it can take a really long time to get over. I am not saying he is wrong, I am just hoping that some has had, or knows someone who has dealt with this same thing. At one point I was sure I had a stress fracture, but the doc says no way, though no xrays or anything were done.
What caused it: This injury occurred during a 16 week marathon build, somewhere around week 14/15. I stopped running after the event. I had a very good base going into the build, full season of racing/training, and built slowly. I never did more than 60 miles in one week. My usual in season volume is around 25 when I am riding and swimming as well. During the build I did an occasional swim or ride, but 95% just running. My guess was simply over training as the cause. Possibly too much of an increase of effort and mileage during one of the later weeks, though I am not certain.
Some other info: I am 6’4" 215 lbs., 30 years old. I have been back to running for a couple of years now. I have had no other running injuries anywhere in the past. I have shoes that have been professionally fit to me, and I change them every 200-250 miles. I typically rotate between two pairs of shoes, though I am not methodical about it, I just keep two pairs, and toss both somewhere around 450 miles. I try to use them evenly. I have been using the same model of trainer for the last two years, Saucony Grid Propel NxGen.
Any help is appreciated.