The good news? I think this is just a very, very sore muscle. The bad news? It hurts a LOT! I had to stop and stretch several times during my walk today and even then I don't think it helped much. The last time after I stopped and started again, the pain was incredible. It got very crampy and tight and felt terrible, kind of like a charley horse but in the front of my shin.
I texted my coach and he called me right away. He thinks it's muscle pain from wearing some new shoes last week - not the RW shoes but rather some casual shoes I bought, the Skechers Shape-ups. Ironically, they are shoes he recommended I try, but I wore them a bit too much the first week and unknowingly fatigued my ankle stabilization muscles, especially in my right leg, for some odd reason. I stopped wearing the shoes on Thursday, and then didn't RW Saturday or Sunday, and so I figured I'd be good to go today. Ummm, not really.
So, on to today's workout. The weather was so-so. It started off 44F (6C) with a light drizzle. The rain got harder and harder throughout the workout, though, and by the time I was done it was actually raining fairly steadily. I did get wet, but I didn't melt :). However, the shin was not good. The pain started right away, and was pretty bad for the first 2K. Then it got better, so I decided maybe I could do the 10K. By 5K it was hurting again; I had a nice time for 5K (30:55) but stopped to stretch the shin right after the 5K mark. I still thought I could finish. By 6K I knew it wasn't going to be pretty and decided to head home, but from where I was it was 8.5K by the time I got home. I could have walked slowly instead of RW, but from experience I knew it would hurt anyway, so I might as well get home faster, especially because it was raining quite a bit by this time and I wasn't getting any drier.
Total 8.46K in 53:09 for 6:17/km with ave HR a nice easy 143. The rest of me is obviously just fine. Now I have to get my shin better. Jim says a few days of cross-training/rest and I should be good as new. I hope he's right. I have a 15K race on Sunday, and I paid $300 for the plane ticket!
Garmin connect data here.
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I was supposed to meet Lisa at the gym, but I seriously did not even think I could drive. It actually REALLY hurts to drive - lifting my toes is very painful. I knew I'd need to rest the shin for a while before I even thought about getting in the car, so I bailed :(.
6 comments:
Tammy, I've had trouble with these in the past. These exercises helped a great deal:
http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/1079-shin-splints.htm
Good luck; I hate it when injuries strike like that.
One sidenote: I was going to walk a marathon in 2002; I had torn my shins up 6 weeks prior and the month prior to the race, I could barely move. I had a grand total of 18 miles in the month before the marathon. But since it was a running event and I had non-refundable airfare, I went and ended up walk/running it in 4:04. The shin pain went away completely.
Thanks, Ollie. I think I can make it through the race if I rest until Sunday (i.e. just cross-training). The timing on this one is bad :( but hopefully if I baby it I will be OK. The pain is actually lateral, not medial. I have done a bit of reading now and shin splints can be medial (more common?) or lateral. I definitely have the lateral variety, in the anterior tibialis muscle. I think it's bad in my right leg because those stabilizing muscles are weaker than in my left leg - I've been doing lots of foot PT exercises which are for the stabilizers, but only on the left side. DUH! Should do stuff on both sides. DUH!
Ok, different injury. But when I had mine, if you put your hand on my shin and did a dorsiflex (point the toes upward) you could hear the "scrunch".
Dorsiflexion is very painful with this injury too :( but I don't hear a scrunching sound. Maybe that's a good sign? All I know right now is that it is very painful. It even hurts (a bit) at rest :(.
Aw, sorry to read this Tammy. Darn shins - you know I have problems with mine. My issues sound a bit different though, so unfortunately I have no advice. Hoping its something temporary for you and that it doesn't affect your race this weekend.
Trust the coach. :)
Rest and gentle cross training..you have a great fitness base and I am sure you will be just fine for your race.
but I am sorry to hear how quickly it came on and how painful too.
heal fast.
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