After six weeks of not so much as a jog I am almost ready to start running again. The reason for this is a bad case of shin splints that I gave myself at the end of last season. Well now I have stayed off the pavement for about as long as I can stand and want to start to run again.
I plan on starting out on the treadmill to minimize the impact on my shins, but want to know if anyone has a sure fire season start run program that won’t bring back the dreaded shin splints. I have a 1/2 IM in early July that I am training for and want to make sure that I remain injury free.
FWIW I get the splints BAD on the inside of my shin between my ankle and halfway up. I do the little toe raises at my desk but that hits the outside of the shin. What else can I do?
FWIW I used to have problems with shin splints when I was built like a football player. It took one full year out of the weight room to drop 30 lbs, but one of many suprising and unexpected benefits was no more shin splints.
I used to stretch all the time, felt tight all the time, etc. Now I warm up slower and more methodically, but stretch less than ever and I haven’t had any shin splints in over a year with my long runs consisting of 12-15 miles on pavement. Your toe raises should help as supposedly shin splints are caused by muscle imbalance between the front and the back of the lower leg. While the stronger muscle contracts, the weaker one cannot properly support the joint and over flexion or extension can occur leading to micotears that hurt as you well know. That is what a PT told me anyway. I used to have overdeveloped calves so I guess that is what might have been going on with me. I’m in proportion now, lighter and having no problems with anything but getting faster. I guess I need to go run now.