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301

Tested my shin on a short run (half a campus loop), which I probably shouldn’t, because the PT and I had agreed that tomorrow I do only drills, and then Tuesday I do the half loop, but today was just such a nice day and my friend and I had to go outside do something, so I say, hey, you wanna go on a very light run with me? And he said “yeahhh”, so we start going, and I follow his pace, but he starts going a little faster than what I should probably be going for day 1, but it was allright, no major bothering or anything, I just had to go get ice right after for precaution and to prevent any inflammation, and generally it was allright.

I realized that if I stretch my calf and ankle really well before I do anything bouncy or run-related, then that helps a lot for the shin. When I got home at night I decided to do the triplet circuits that I did some days ago, and I stretched a lot before I attempted anything and didn’t feel ANYTHING :slight_smile:
My circuit went well, and some parts felt a lot better than last time, such as push ups (did same amount of reps though, 15, cause I was still pretty tired), I did 40 sit ups compared to 30, v-sits felt A LOT easier - did 25 compared to 20 (really struggling last time). This was it:

3*(30jump squats, 25 push ups, 40sit ups)
3*(20burpees, 20floppy fish, 8 lunges each)
3*(15 glute raises with SB, 25v-sits, 20 dips)

felt good afterwards…I glad I did that :slight_smile:

Tomorrow 6:30am practice, finallyyyyy BUT i’m doing the regular workout, I’m just testing the shin with drills. But STILL good to practice w/ the team again. :smiley:

302

I didn’t get the chance to post yesterday, I was busy all day and EXHAUSTED when I got home.
I was so excited to be going to 6:30am practice yesterday, I kept waking up every hour…I don’t know what my problem is :confused: I had set up my alarm clock for 5:30am, at somepoint I wake up at 4:20am thinking it’s 5:20 so I literally get up, get ready and drive to school (20min) getting there at 5am…I noticed the time when I got there…the sports center was closed, everything was closed, but the nice old man George who’s at the sports center in the mornings let me inside so i waited there for an hour… :cool:
Teammates’ reactions: “now that’s just a little too scary!!” :cool:

It’s not like I did anything productive in practice anyways, it’s just my thrill to be working out w/ the team again. I did a short warm up, stretched, did drills and then had to call it quits after two 50m strides. :frowning:

I wonder if I will ever be healed. I’m pretty sure it’s a matter of keeping it warm, cause after I stretch A LOT it does a lot better, and I’ve noticed it’s sore when I walk outside in the cold. Maybe I should just be doing summer track? :frowning: Because I DO get injured every winter…

Also did 30min hard on the elliptical and then lifting:

  1. snatch and overhead lunges, 3*2, 65lbs
  2. snatches, 43, my right shoulder hurt at the end of these, skipped set 4. I think I went up to 80lbs
    3a. BB lungess, 4    5each, up to 135lbs
    3b. walk overs, 45each side
    3c. seated rows, 4    8, 80, 85,90,90lbs
    4a. DB curl and press, 38, 20, 25,20lbs
    4b. glute and ham raises, 3    10
  3. about 200 abs
303

Bike workout:
525sec sprints, 35sec rest/rep, sprints ranging from 140-153rpm @level 6/10
same thing for 530sec sprints, 535sec sprints, and then 350sec sprints (these ones at 120-130rpm)

Then I tested my shin for 800m on the treadmill at 4mph (how pathetic is that…it’s not that I’m out of shape, just the pounding still makes the shin sore); I was concentrating on running more on my heels (which I can’t do to save my life…but it worked a little).

Iced three times today.
The PT told me that sore soreness is normal, I just have to be VERY careful in getting back to my activities gradually, and never allow pain for more than one day, which means try something one day, ice like crazy and if the pain hasn’t gone away by the next day, then take the next day off…goodness… :confused:
Well, tomorrow at practice I’m allowed to try a couple more strides/accelerations…yaaayyy, wow, I’m on my road to the Olympics now :cool:
But I guess I shouldn’t complain, at least I’m on my feet right?
:o …so there…

304

Yesssss…
I did some sprint practice today and my shin held up pretty well!!! I followed my PT’s directions: do a sprint, you’ll feel some soreness; stretch; if the soreness goes up, stoppp, if the soreness stays the same, try one more at the most, if the soreness goes down, try some more, following the same logic. Well, my soreness went down after stretching :slight_smile:

First we did some clawing technique (after drills and 250m strides)
I didn’t do the whole workout, actually I just skipped some resistance drills, and one 100… I did 225m, 1100, and 250m. They all felt really good, my endurance needs some work…yes, by doing short sprints like that, BUT my starts are GREAT (no blocks, just my first acceleration phase).
Tomorrow I’ll take it easy, do some cardio where no shin action is involved.

I iced 4 times today. Minor bothering.

305

I know this should be my responsibility, but I’m mad at my coach because my shin hurt me today :mad:
coach: what are you going to do today?
me: probably the bike, so this will be my easy day and tomorrow i can do the track workout (note: track workouts are M-W-F)
coach: yeah, although it’s so nice outside…it would be great if you could run outside, maybe do a campus loop?
me: ummmm, ok if it bothers me I’ll just do half

So me and a girl and guy teammate start running at a pretty good steady pace (too fast for my shin), I was feeling allright (85%) so I decided to do the whole loop (a little less than 1.5miles), but i just walked the last 300meters or so with the guy teammate who has a hurt foot…

Aaaahhh I was so MAD afterwards for doing the stupid loop, it was USELESS, plus my endurance is not bad AT ALL from all the bike and the other stuff that I’ve been doing so I’ve realized that long runs on freakin cement is NO USE for me right now…

Ice ice ice… till I go to bed. (is too much ice bad? considering I ice 20min at a time, and
have at LEAST 20min breaks between?)

The shin is not as bad as it might sound…I was just doing pretty well with being careful about getting back to track pretty slowly, and today I kinda messed up and my shin let me know about it :frowning:

306

Took Friday and Saturday completely off to make my shin as good as possible, kept icing like crazy on Friday.

Friday I played some basketball (just shooting hoops)with some teammates and then played two games of “horse” against 4 guys and a girl and I won both games :smiley:

Sunday I played bowling, I almost never bowl and I scored a 160 :eek: wow…I could barely break 100 the other few times I bowled…

Today I tai bo’ed for an hour with my sister. Quite a workout…I consider those tai bo workouts almost equivalent to circuits, they do great stuff… I think my majic explosiveness in last Wednesday’s workout on the track comes 1)from weights, 2) from tai bowing
…or so I like to think :rolleyes:

Shin feels a lot better than last Thursday when I did that stupid asphalt run.

307

i did a real track workout today, pretty hard, i thought my legs and butt were gonna fall off… :rolleyes:
300, 300, 150, 150
First 300 was pretty fast but unfortunately not timed, second felt a bit slower at 48sec after 6min rest, then 3min rest, 150m at 20seconds, and after 3 min another 150 that I didn’t ask my time for, cause I was too busy trying not to get a heart attack… :eek:

Shin is not all that bad!!! I’m icing every hour for until I go to sleep.

308

Shin and knee were bad after today’s workout. I did three sets of 25m-50m-75m, pretty easy workout, but no real rests, just walking back. I was smart enough to bring some ice at the track, so I iced right after…it was painful to walk and I was pretty angry because of it. I’m not sure I can go through whole outdoor like this, it’s too painful and it requires too much ice…

Tomorrow we’re leaving for North Carolina and running the Raleigh relays Friday and Saturday at NCState. I’m running a 4*400 and that’s it, thank goodness. I’ll see how this week goes and make the “appropriate” decisions afterwards.

309

Got back from North Carolina.

We had a very light practice on Thursday, my shin was not doing very well from Tuesday’s sprints, it was painfull do to a warm up and drills, I tell my coach, so then she’s like : try doing a couple 200s with the distance people :confused: I do one at 31sec, slowing down a lot at the end, shin hurt, I told a teammate “this is just making it worse” (duhhh), the teammate drags me out of the track and tells coach I’m done with the workout, I sit on the grass extremely frustrated, no one is around, so I let some tears out (shhhhh…don’t let anyone know), I talk with one of the coaches later and he tells me to rest and see how it feels by Saturday’s relays.

Saturday comes (i’m supposed to be in the 4*1, but we decide to save me some pain), meanwhile I’m questioned by everyone if I can do a 400 (shin-wise and endurance-wise), cause the last time I did a 400 was weeks ago and only had two track practices really.
I was going to run first leg because coach said it’s the shortest leg, but then we decide that it’s better for me to run last, so in case i don’t finish my lap the rest of the team gets to run…
To make a long story short; I ran great for what I could offer at the moment; a 62 and the team finished in 4:06 and we can do a lot better than that…

But now I don’t know what to do. I can’t seem to complete practices, and I don’t know if it’s worth it running at meets or not.

But now i’m tired and going to bed…

310

No practice Monday
Today everybody went on a long run, but I went on the bike to save me some shin pain and did 30 minutes straight, going 1min hard at resistance 5, then 1min at resistance 2, maintaining the pace.

Intramural volleyball started today and of course I’m playing :o . We won. My shin and knee hurt doing it and for some reason I kept twisting my right ankle again and again…I must have done it like 4 times… it was so weird. :confused:

311

track workout:
400-400-400-200-200 but I didn’t make it through the last 200 because of shin and knee.

times were: 68, 72, 75, 30
It’s been a while since a workout like this!! I wish I only felt the good kind of pain (muscle pain) as opposed to bone pain (ouchhh).
I’m moving my today’s lift to tomorrow because practice was at 4:30pm and I didn’t want to be doing single leg lunges and stuff before running 400s…

312

how much rest between the runs? running a 30 at the end is nice!

313

About 4 minutes.
By the way, I tried Cliff bars. Good stuff!! They’re like soft cookies.

Today’s workout:
Bike: 5min WU
20min: 2min hard and fast, 2min easy and slower
10min: 1min harder and very fast, 2min easy and slow
5min CD

Weights:
1a) single leg lunges: 45each: 85, 95, 105, 115
1b) single leg butt kicks, 5 each (only right leg…pretty soon I’ll be running in circles if my right keeps getting stronger)
2a) incline DB press, 48, 30lbs
2b) chin ups, 33
3) DB jerks, 26: 30, 35lbs
4) hypers, 2*15
5) abs

314
  • 10min elliptical
  • Weights:
  1. hang clean and jerks, 3*3: 75, 89, 99
  2. deep back squats, 52: up to 200lbs
    3a) 3way shoulder raises, 4    8each, 5lb plates
    3b) shrugs, 4*8, 35lbs
  3. SL hypers w/ 15lb weight, 4 sets
  4. 200abs

  • Physical therapy: clamp exercises for the hips, stretching a lot, side shuffeling on hallway w/ resistance band tied around ankles, more exercises, toe walking, etc…

  • Track practice:
    one lap WU, stretch
    8stride diagonals on football field, jogging the short straight in between
    3    200m @ 30, 31, 32, walk back recovery

I have to ice now :frowning:

315

One hour tae bo today (glute concentration) and lots of forbidden foods throughout the day(chocolate, almond cake, ice cream, pop corn).

Tomorrow is comletely off and I think on Monday I might try to arrange for a bone scan. I need to know what’s going in that shin of mine…
Does anyone know if it’s normal for it to be a bit swelled up? It’s been like this for months… Don’t imagine any big swelling…just a noticeable infammation on the touch.

316

I’ve had really bad shin splints all year (since the end of January), and although I dont really notice any swelling at the moment, they are really tender to the touch (not good when you’re hurdling) and when I run my finger along them it seems that they’re are ridges, or bumps, along the shin.

A couple things that have really helped me are heating and stretching. It seems like you do a lot of icing (which BTW, it should be for approx 15min, then at least an hour break, preferably two, before doing it again, because yes, too much icing is bad), which is good after workouts and at home, but heating helps with the pain. Generally, I’ll either heat my shins with a heat pad or in the hot whirpool (when the trainer lets me) for 15 minutes before warming up. Then as part of my warm-up I pay extra attention to stretching my calves. Then after the work I walk 2 laps around the track barefoot, walking on your toes every once in a while throughout the two laps. Then I stretch my calves some more and then ice.

Another thing I get done sometimes is to get my shins taped. It doesnt treat the actual shin splints, but it lessens the pain during the workout. If there’s a trainer at your school, he/she should know how to do it. If not, just ask and I’ll try to describe it so you could try it yourself.

Finally, I don’t know how you’ve been icing, but the one other thing I do is this: get a paper cup, fill it with water, and stick it in the freezer. Once the water is frozen take the cup out of the freezer and cut off the paper part of it so you’re left with a big cylindrical ice thinger. Then go somewhere where you can spill water (like the porch steps, or on a towel inside) and rub the ice up and down along your shin. After a while, it starts to form to your shin and you can really start to dig in with the piece of ice. That really helped me cuz it’s like a massage and an icing session at the same time. Do this until the ice melts, one session a night, and I think it’ll go along way in relieving some of your pain.

A couple other random things about shins before I end this whole thing. When you do make it out to run, see if you can find a grassy area (like a football or soccer field, the outfield on a baseball diamond, a park) to do your workouts. I find it’s much easier on my shins then the track is. Also, make sure that once you’re done with the prescribed distance for the run that you decelerate slowly. For me at least, the most painful part of the run is the slowing down after it’s done. I take at least 30m to stop now, just gradually slowing down to prevent too much stress on the lower leg area. Then finally, if you can’t make it out to the track cuz of the pain, just substitute with a bike session or a session in the pool if you have access. It’s better than doing nothing at all.

If you’re already doing any of the things I mentioned, I apologize in advance for repeating it again, but I just wanted to cover all the bases.

I know shin splints really suck, so good luck and hope you get better soon. Any questions about that kind of stuff, just ask and I’ll try and help you out.

317

Thanks Mister C, all that sounds really helpful, I’ll definately try EVERYTHING! Just a question: do you think it’s normal after intense practice to experience sharp pain in the hurt area even when I’m sitting down and not doing anything? I’m a little worried about this, because it’s the kind of pain that I would feel last year when I broke my metatarsal bone…just wondering… :confused:

Today I did the circuits I always do (Chris’ circuits to avoid plagiarism… :wink: ). Tomorrow morning 6:30am practice on the track…I just hope it’s as pain free as possible. I’ll tape my shin before hand, STRETCH a lot for the warm up, do drills on grass and stuff, might not be able to do the workout on grass too, but at the end I’m definately walking at least a lap barefoot to see if that helps. Then ice ice ice (I’ll do the ice cup thing too). And then ice throughout the day. I just need to get through Mondays and Wednesdays practically, because those are the only track workouts I will have and those are what kills my shin and knee.

318

Yeah, that happens to me generally after every practice. I’m not a doctor or anything, so I dont know if that’s the kind of pain that’ll signal a broken bone, but I do know that shin splints can cause stress fractures if you dont address them. But yes, the pain when I’m sitting down is usually a shooting pain that lasts for maybe a minute or two right when I’m done running. Then after that it dulls out a bit.

319

Ohhhh…a minute or two??? Mine lasts for the next hour… :frowning: It has to be iced IMMEDIATELY

320

I didn’t find any time to post since Sunday, so this will be an abbreviation of the week thus far:

MONDAY morning track practice:
75-150-225
225-150-75
75 (I skipped the next 150, and then the whole team skipped the last 225, so practice ended there).

Warming up is really painful for the knee. The trainer tells me now that I have tendonidis (doctor told me I have chondromalacia). Then as the workout progresses, the shin gets rather painful, “cancels out” the pain of the knee and I feel the shin more. After the whole workout is over, I can feel both :frowning:
BUT I found that walking a lap on my toes and without shoes at the end WAS helpful. Only my socks got soaked because it’s pretty moist at 7 in the morning.

Then weights: same old same old… the trainer needs to make us a new one, because now we go twice a week where the old one is for three times. I’ve realized that now that I’m running again I feel a lot more tired in weights and lift less, but I don’t remember exact numbers since Monday. But i know what we did:

  1. snatch and overhead lunges, 3*2
  2. snatches, 42
    3a) BB lunges (eeeew), 4    5each
    3b) walk overs, 45each
    3c) seated rows, 4    8
    4a) curl and press, 38
    4b) glute and ham raises, 3    10
  3. abs

TUESDAY:
30min on the elliptical
frisbee playing :slight_smile: (legs hurt after that so it counts as a workout :rolleyes: )

WEDNESDAY:
track practice:
5*110m w/ walk back recovery (I don’t know times, but they felt good)

Amazingly, shin and knee have recovered VERY nicely from this morning’s workout, which was short and sweet :slight_smile:

I’m about to go lift now…body parts are fatigued…this will be interesting.