My wife is training for her first marathon which will be December 2nd. She’s been battling shin splints for the past few weeks and it’s becoming a real stressor.
Little background on her. She’s super type A+. We’re doing Hal Higdon’s Intermediate II plan and she’s only missed a couple of days trying to beat these shin splints.
We are on week 14. On her cross days she’s been indoor cycling, yoga or the stair climbing.
Before she started training she was consistent in running 4-6 days a week.
She’s now developed a shin splint on the inside of her shin on her right leg. We’ve tried switching to trails and alternating shoes. I’m trying to get her to take some rest but that’s very very hard for her. If she does “rest” she wants to do a 90 minute indoor cycling session or the stair climber.
This injury is weighing on her mentally too. She’s getting tired and worn down. She’s put in so much hard work she’s afraid she might not be able to do the marathon. She’s been hitting all of her paces in training and I predict her finish will be somewhere between 3:35-3:40.
I’m going to have her read the responses to this thread. Do you guys have any advice for her? Ideas on how to beat shin splits? Ideas to change the above training program to get her healthy for the marathon? Mental tips when injured so close to your A Race?
The marathon is only a month away. According to the schedule you posted, she’s already gotten at least one 20 miler in. When I dealt with this training for my first half years ago, I had to replace running days w/ spinning days. It happened at about the same time in training to me as well. Very common among anyone ramping up their mileage. Anyway, just maintain the cardio work doing anything that won’t stress that overuse injury. The rest won’t be bad for her. On race day, she’ll feel like a million bucks. At least that’s my n=1 experience.
First, you should probably make sure she does not have a stress fracture - once that it ruled out and you think it is really shin splints then:
A couple of ideas that have worked for me (more long term but might help her in the short run) During warm up before she starts her run, have her walk around on her heels pointing her toes up - essentially this works / stresses the anterior tibialis (the muscle that runs down the front of the shin and commonly is the cause of shin splints - the muscle literally slaps agains the bone when unflexed and causes irritation) she should do the walk until it feels like her shin muscle is cramping then go run.
Longer term solution is to strengthen the muscle, get an old belt, loop it through a weight (in no weights available, a can of paint, empty milk jug filled with water, ect) and do toe raises.
First, you should probably make sure she does not have a stress fracture - once that it ruled out and you think it is really shin splints then:
A couple of ideas that have worked for me (more long term but might help her in the short run) During warm up before she starts her run, have her walk around on her heels pointing her toes up - essentially this works / stresses the anterior tibialis (the muscle that runs down the front of the shin and commonly is the cause of shin splints - the muscle literally slaps agains the bone when unflexed and causes irritation) she should do the walk until it feels like her shin muscle is cramping then go run.
Longer term solution is to strengthen the muscle, get an old belt, loop it through a weight (in no weights available, a can of paint, empty milk jug filled with water, ect) and do toe raises.
Both have worked for me.
Good luck
This. I got rid of shin splints by strengthening the muscles in front of the shin via toe raises as described. Sit on a hi bench or table, hang your leg off with the upper leg horizontal, and do toe raises.
seeing that i have my doctorate and i treat patients with this often i will weigh in.
first off, shin splints could be due to many things. often times it’s muscle weakness or tightness, joint limitations or simply over training.
it’s her first marathon. maybe she should listen to her body and take a day off. training plans (in my professional and athletic opinion) are stupid. they are a guideline but not something you should follow to the T. they are made for some people, not for others.
your shins hurting is your body telling you that you need rest or to address the problem. as stated above, go seek medical care. make sure it’s not a stress fracture (or it will become one later) and go see a physical therapist. if it’s not a stress fracture then a little strengthening and modalities should do the trick.
i fixed my last patients shin splints in one treatment. she stayed with rehab for 4 weeks doing strengthening exercises to all her muscles that i felt were weak. so far she is on pace to break to marathon pr. already crushed her half marathon pr by 8 minutes.
In the early stages of medial tibial stress syndrome (more descriptive name), pain occurs at the beginning of activity and resolves as exercise continues. As the condition worsens, symptoms continue throughout the activity. In later stages, the pain becomes sharper and more severe and persists even after the activity has stopped. Rather than complete rest or inactivity, relative rest/activity modification is a better approach. Restrict or modify activities that provoke symptoms to avoid further bone stress reactions. The duration of relative rest for healing will vary on a case-to-case basis, depending on the severity of the condition, and can range from a few days to weeks.
Other than what was already mentioned, have her water run for a few days. It will keep her busy and while she won’t gain fitness, it will slow down or stop any loss of fitness.
So what exercises would you have her do? She’s type A+ so she needs a list :).
She’d also long a plan on how to modify her training. Can anyone modify the above plan to include some rest/reduce load? I could do it, but sometimes it’s better if it doesn’t come from the husband (you married guys know what I mean).
consider missing the race to preserve the legs for later. too much running on shin splints can be very difficult to undo later on. it can cause the loss of the ability to heal properly.
I’m going through the exact same dilemma, though, I’m probably about month ahead.
I too have been training for the CIM (assuming that’s the one she’s doing in Dec?) and have been battling shin splints for ~2 months (X-ray and MRI came back negative for a stress fracture).
-The injury was the case of me ramping up mileage too soon.
-Cardio was maintained through cycling and open water swimming.
-Walking also proved beneficial for recovery, as it helped with blood circulation in the area of injury.
Focus on hip flexors during strength workouts. This has helped tremendously with past bouts with patellar tendinitis and, more recently, shin splints. (Might not necessarily work for your wife but it won’t hurt to incorporate into her strength regimen)
I’ve heard calf compression sleeves mitigate the possibility of shin splints.
-I’m currently using KT tape, using a shin-splint-specific weave, and it’s actually working. (I was a bit skeptical on its affect at first but now I’m a believer!)
Hope any of thjs information finds your wife well!
Only deep water is across town and hours are 12-1. We have a 1.5 year old. She does great in the stroller while we run.
It would be a big pain in the butt to do deep water running, and she refuses to do it (I suggested this about a year ago when she ran herself into a stress fracture).
Obviously she’s more suited to cycling and should be banging out a sufferfest vid on TrainerRoad.com
(I wish I could figure out how to make this pink!)
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Was she fitted at a running store for the right shoes? Have the same place check her run/wear pattern on the shoes and how many miles she has on them. Sometimes that can help a lot. Along with doing the ABC’s with her big toe in the air to strengthen her TA.
Toe raises. Have work with two five pound dumb bells. Place heel on one dumb bell and the other one placed on top of the foot resting on the dumb bell. Lift the toes up 15 times. Switch feet. Do for a week and the calf and shin muscles will balance out enough for the pain to go away. The calf gets stronger than the front quicker. No dumb bells? Do isometrics with one foot on top of the other. Raise the bottom foot while the top foot is putting downward pressure on it. Switch. Do a few times a day for a week. Race fast and painless (at least on the shins) come race day.
