A Question for the PC Runners

[Gan]

I have a pretty consistent workout routine of weights 3x a week and running 3x a week.

I typically run 3 miles each morning of the day I weight train (I lift at night).

My question is:

Since I've moved from running on the treadmill to running outside I've noticed that I am getting shin splints which only seem to emerge when I run on pavement. Is this enhanced by not having the shock absorbing effect of the treadmill?

Any idea as to how do I get rid of this pain (shin splint type feeling)?

I run nike shox running shoes and I typically have a heel to toe running style.

Any tips? Thx.

[Goretawn]

To help reduce the current pain of the shin splints, use an Ace bandage and wrap them. It should help to releave the pain.

It is always difficult to start on a hard surface after the treadmill. Take a day or two off from running. It will take time for your body to adjust to the harder pavement. If you run consistantly, then you should get new shoes about every 3-4 months. Running can be an expensive hobby.

One more thing, peaches. For nothing else, they taste good! :)

[Asha]

Good move btw Ganalon. Running the pavement is 10 times more exerting and rewarding than the treadmill, as you may know.

With the heel-toe movement, the muscles in the shin are rigorously stretched and relaxed. The 'splints' come from the strain in them.
I've also heard it could mean you've damaged those muscles.
The best case is to stop running for now and instead to excersise the shin and calf muscles in some other way until they're feeling much better. Then when you run you'll probably notice the pain has lessened or gone completely.
If not I'd see a doctor just to be rid of it.
I've never suffered the problem you have but any other advice here will be useful incase I do.

[Daniel]

RICE: Rest Ice Compression Elevation.

Ease yourself into street running. Either cut back to twice a week until you get stronger or go for less.

Ice it when you're done: Self explanatory

Compression: Like someone said, use an ace bandage.

Elevate it when you can.


Also, the shin splints are a result of your calf muscles growing too fast for the tendon in your shin, so its literally tearing it away from your bone\muscle. That sounds gross, but it rarely gets that far. More often than not, you'll develop stress fractures that preclude that from happening.

The best thing to do is to strength that band. Sit down and hold your ankle out in front of you and "draw" the alphabet with your toes. You should feel it in that general area, which means its working.

Do that, and RICE and you should be fine.

[Anebriated]

I ran cross country during high school and I can say shin splints suck. Try taking a day off from your running regimine and just give your legs an extra day to recover. Also when stretching(assuming you do stretch before you run) just kind of sit down and slowly rotate your foot extending it as far as it will go in all directions. Should help loosen up your lower legs.

I've never really had success with ace bandages for shin splints. Good advice of the shoes though. Running is extremely hard on shoe support so its good to replace the shoes every couple months as mentioned before.

[Gan]

Thanks for reminding me about the RICE technique. I have not heard that since my days of HS basketball. I never had splints from football or baseball.

Daniel, your breakdown of splints was enlightening. I'll probably cut back on distance for a few weeks and see if that helps. I'm reluctant to cut back in frequency due to not wanting to break my routine.

I must say that I've enjoyed the results pavement over treadmill. My sprints are more exerting and there's something about running through my neighborhood at 5:30am when all is quiet and dark thats just peaceful, even if I live in the 4th largest city in the US. It beats the hell out of silently running next to some bloke who forgot to shower/brush teeth and his blowing hard on the treadmill next to you while glued to a TV monitor.

The Shox I have are about 2 months into my running routine. I expect to switch them out by November. Having a compromised left knee, I have to be very careful of the shape of the shoes I run with. And yes, at $100.00 a shot, it can be a very expensive hobby.

Thanks for the input.

I've also managed to inspire my neighbor into joining me on the runs. Now if I can just talk him into joining me in doing some mini-triathalons next season, thanks to Janarth for giving me the triathalon bug...

[Ilvane]

I used to be a runner before I broke my ankle a few years ago(Yikes, 8 years now!)(twice actually, the second time in 5 places..the doc said he had never seen anything like it!)

Daniel is exactly on for what is good for getting out from the treadmill to the street. It takes time for your body to get used to it.

As for the triathalons, there are tons of people at my job that do them and train for them. Sounds like a lot of work, but very rewarding.

Me, I'll stick with my cross country workouts, they seem to work JUST fine for me at this moment. Course it's all about the fat loss and cardio conditioning for me, without killing my ankle again. So far so good.:)

I will say, I miss running for all the rush you got afterwards.

Angela

[Some Rogue]

I used to get them horribly back in HS football. I had no choice whether to stop or not heh. A couple Aleve before practice worked great until I got used to the running again.

[Janarth]

My next challenge-my-body-fun is the Philly marathon :)

Unfortunatly, I've run into a little of Ganalon's problem lately - have shin splint pain but only on my left shin. I'm an overpronator wearing month old saucony hurricanes (which were recomended to me as good stability shoes). I think the question has pretty much been answered, so I am going to skip a run this week and maybe do my third run on the treadmill instead of the dirt/pavement (I typically run the 3/4 mile to central park, then do the reservoir loop three or four times and run back). Up to 25m a week though!

What I'm kinda interested in, is if any kind of nutritition can speed recovery and why I'd only get the splints in one shin. I've been looking for differences in my stride and stuff, but I seem to run fairly symmetrical.

[sst]

Dont be weak, run though the pain. =)

[Gan]

Pain is weakness leaving the body!

oooorah!

[Anebriated]

When is the philly marathon? Doubt ill have the motivation to get myself back into shape for it but who knows...

[Gan]

My neighbor said he'd do triathalons with me if I will train with him to climb some of the 14's in Colorado as well as Teton in Yellowstone.

I'll never be a Denali level climber, but doing some of the 14's sound cool. Of course we're going to have to do some climbing camps to learn about gear, etc.

I'm also going to see about throwing in the MS150 bike run from Houston to Austin. I dont know about the hills outside of Austin though. I'm a flatlander. :(

[Skeeter]

about the only thing you can do for shin splints is rest.

Try running in grass or on a beach if one's nearby.

[sst]

Pain is weakness leaving the body!

oooorah!

EEEK im no jarhead (marine) please please use the term HUA! (heard understood and acknowledged)

More serious note, ive always just run though my shinsplints and iced when i could. We run 5 days a week back in the states, here im normally running 6 days a week, its one of the things that keeps me sane. Im lazy though here it tends to be the treadmill half the time, however i find it harder to run on a treadmill than i do the ground, It adds 1:30 to my two mile run time on a treadmill, plus running looking at the ranger in front of me whos wearing short shorts is not as palatable as the beautiful views of the city of mosul you get when you run outside.

You will enjoy the triathalons you get an awsome sense of accomplishment when you finish. The swimming sucks the most though.

[Gan]

I also have to add that running on the morning that everyone puts out their trash for pickup is just... well an olfactory experience to say the least.

[sst]

I also have to add that running on the morning that everyone puts out their trash for pickup is just... well an olfactory experience to say the least.

Heh depending on the wind here, try running the middle of a city without any sewage system or trash pick up...

[Asha]

That's Emislitys crib. Where she goes to chill, to relax.. to Chill-ax.

[Latrinsorm]

New Balance >> Nike

Days off and running on grass always fixed anything that was wrong with my legs. You're always better off taking a pre-emptive day off than not being able to run for weeks because you seriously injured yourself.

[Anebriated]

I would agree with Latrin that NB > Nike. New Balance, Saucony and Nike are the 3 best running shoes though. Any of them provide good cushioning and support. New Balance are best for larger feet and wide feet.

[Gan]

I might look at some NB shoes then. I have size 12's that are wide (flat feet since birth).

[DeV]

I would agree with Latrin that NB > Nike. New Balance.
Agreed. I don't use any other brand for cross training purposes.

[Skirmisher]

New Balance is what I wear also.

[Asha]

Dad treated me to some really nice Asics runs (http://www.shoemall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?redirect=1&family%5Fid=18237&GCID=C16122x006) for my last birthday.
They're so comfortable, aired and supportive when i first tried them out I felt I could run long, faster.
They're not gonna break the bank either. My dad's skint, he knows best. :)

[Anebriated]

Asics arent bad shoes but I find the support arch can be uncomfortable in some of their models.

If you have flat feet then 100% go new balance. They used to have shoes that were pretty much made for runners with flat feet, I havent been keeping too up to date on them anymore since I lost touch with my running buddy who had flat feet. He swore by their shoes though.

edit: I should say that new balance makes the best cross trainers. Nike makes the best track spike. IMHO.

[Daniel]

...


What Battalion and when were you in Mosul?

[Artha]

I smell an Iraq PC Gathering in the makings...

[Gan]

Mosul-CON!

[Tsa`ah]

Aside from knee issues, shin splints were terrible through HS and college.

The RICE routine works great but you'll want to work in additional stretching (reverse calf stretches by D's method or simply extending your toes out as far as you can and holding for 30 seconds in a series.). You may even want to grab a resistance exercises band (big ass rubber band) attach one end to something heavy and stable and loop the other end over the top of your feet and pull the band with your feet toward your body. Start out with very little tension and just scoot further back over time.

As strange as it may sound, walk backwards for a quarter mile or so ... briskly. As you walk, exaggerate your leg extension hold/stretching the toes down and away. Also look into finding a rubber/compound track to run on.

[sst]

What Battalion and when were you in Mosul?

<--- Dave

2-3 Infantry =)

I will say this you guys in 1st BDE did a hell of a lot better job than 172nd did.

[Janarth]

As a lifelong "wide feet" person, I know that Nike is the enemy. Don't get me wrong, they did a lot of athletic shoes - they just don't cater to us people with wide, flat feet. I recognize New Balance is great, currently in Saucony.

[Gan]

Actually I've been a unique fan of Nike and their cross trainers because of their widess around the ball of the foot and how the soul of the shoe was even wider as it angled up to the top portion. This gave me plenty of prevention of rolling the actual shoe around my foot. BUT, now that I"m doing pavement running, I dont want the weight of the cross trainer and do not need the extra rolling prevention.

Edited to add:

Any activity where I have to stop, plant, and turn is when I look for the wide ball feet and rolling prevention. At 6'3" 240 lb. I put a lot of stress on ankles and knees when I'm moving 'fast' (relative term for a former lineman).

Thanks for all the additional information.

[Xandalf]

I'm running in the Baltimore marathon in a few weeks! Congrats on your new routine.

New shoes. If you're running a lot, you should get new shoes every 3 months or so. This is the single most important factor

If that doesn't improve the problem, your running form is off. Try talking to track coach or someone who used to run competitvly in high school or something. I remember doing tons of form running and although I hated and bitch about it, it sure helped at the end of the day!

[ElanthianSiren]

Try MBTs. I like them best for walking. I blew out my knees running CC in Middle School/Early High School, so I don't run anymore, but I've found that the masai shoes are awesome just for keeping your gait right. I assume it works for running too.

-M

[Stanley Burrell]

Any idea as to how do I get rid of this pain (shin splint type feeling)?

Don't run/jog downhill if you're out on a trail; that's a recipe for pain, what with all those tiny little fractures being condensed. Don't mess with inclines on a treadmill until you're sure teh splintz (which is like a really l33t version of shin splints) aren't acting up too much, if at all.

Changing your workout regiment is not a sign of weakness. Having legs like a ninety year old osteoporotic individual at age 48 is. Work at a pace that you feel comfortable with and know is right for you.

Sometimes I'll go for a slow walk while throwing in sets Billy Blanks style of fifty forward punches, interchanged with fifty uppercuts for just half a mile and it royally beats my ass. The downside to this is that you look friggin' ridiculous doing so in an open environment with other human beings.

I would gladly trade your stankin' ass garbage thingy for the absurd west Nile outbreak within my general vicinity. Mad outdoor-type-walking-jogging-and-running peepz is catching the disease 'round my stomping grounds, yo.

And NB = God.

[Gan]

:rofl: @ Stan's post. Thx. bub.

And we also have west nile down here, in fact, they're adding fogging by airplane to the northern parts of Houston where its pretty bad. We just have the fogging trucks drive through at night in our part of the southwest side.

I swear Thursday morning, when the garbage is out to be collected, that there's one house that I almost called the police on because the can almost smelled like it had a hot bloated human corpse in it. (and yes, I do know what one of those smells like, will never forget in fact)

[Stanley Burrell]

Burning hot morgue stench and west Nile combined is a pretty unbeatable combo.

You play a lot of soccer growing up?

[Anebriated]

Im interested to see where that connection is going...

[Gan]

:lol: me too.

Baseball, football (not soccer), basketball.

Those were my sports growing up.

[Gan]

Bump/Follow Up.

Pain persisted through stretching, so I took off 2 running cycles. First run today after continuous stretching (ankle rotations as suggested to stretch muscles along shins) and there was no pain, legs felt refreshed and my pace picked up.

Thanks guys. PC FTW!

[Hulkein]

I pulled both my calves playing softball yesterday, I really need to start running more again, haha.

[Latrinsorm]

I hope you were at least playing the outfield.

It's *incredible* how many people hurt themselves playing softball. We lost at least 3 guys this year to muscle pull/tears. Stretching ftw.

Also, wtg Ganalon!

[Daniel]

You mean Basic training for the win.