Sore Shins

John_C

I was out orienteering in Killiney last weekend when I had to slow down to a walk for most of the race because my shin bones were getting very sore. It's something I hear others talking about regularly enough so I'm not too worried about it in the long term. I've heard that it's caused by the shin bones becoming stressed from the repeated impact of long runs and that seems to make sense in my case because I had 2 ten mile runs in the week leading up to the 'injury', one of them on roads.

The question I have is this; How soon can I start training again? Can I go out as soon as they feel better or should I leave it a while. I don't mind taking a week off from training if it will help them heal but, at the same time, I'd like to get back out as soon as I can.

crubean

i used to suffer with shin splints it a sore thing.if you are sitting down for a while when you get up are your shins sore?if yes obvious ice them to take swelling down.
when you are sitting down put a towel around the ball part of your foot.hold the towel with both hands use it like an elastic band,push your foot away from you and you feel it in your shins.it helps .I hope that little bit of info will help you

zeppe

Hi, I had really sore shins a few months back at the start of my Marathon programme. Advice I got was to stop training for at least a week and rest it. I iced or also put hot packs on my shins a few times a day. Then when iced or when the muscles were hot I would massage the affected area and try to really dig into the muscles and almost separate them, mainly down by the inner ankle. Another tip I got was rub a golf ball up and down the muscle.

Anyway, after a week my shins were far better and I've been training up to 18 mile runs with no recurrence. Make sure you do lots of stretching and try to ice up after every session. Hope this helps.

Cormac

John_C

Thanks for the advice. I think what I have sounds like a milder dose of what crubean described. The pain is in my bones rather than the muscles.

I'm going to try a short run this evening and, if all goes well, I'll try to start running properly again this weekend. The orienteering on Sunday should have a soft enough surface, it'll be better than running on roads at least.

John_C

In case anyone's interested, that cleared up after about a week. Thanks for the help.