I posted months back about some continuous shin splint problems that I was dealing with that were frustrating the hell out of me. Eventually I got fed up with trying to continue my Workouts and went to the doctor and I thought I might share a lot of the things I learned from my time off.

Basically I had a continuous pain in my left leg that was somewhat centralized in nature and appeared after every run, lasting up to 5 days before the pain went away completely. I eventually had x-rays taken of it which came back two weeks later with a negative diagnosis for stress fractures, but as all of us who have labored over this type of injury know, stress fractures generally do not show up on x-rays until weeks later after the healing process is firmly under way. I decided regardless to take a clean six weeks off to start over in the case that it might take that long to mend. During my time off I began taking calcium supplements and drinking lots of milk (I go through about 1 gallon p/ 48 hours). After 5 weeks I began running on the treadmill again three days per week. I followed Galloway's advice in an article he wrote about starting to run outside again after the cold season that discusses switching over from a treadmill to the hard streets outside. The idea behind it is that you want to start out switching between the treadmill and another cardio activity; I chose the elliptical machine. I started the first day with 10 mins elliptical, 5 mins treadmill, 5 mins elliptical, 5 mins treadmill. Over the two weeks I slowly increased the treadmill time and decreased the elliptical time until I finished a 30 minute treadmill run. This is not an exact program to follow, simply a guide by which you might design something for yourself if you are in a similar situation. I should add that my hurt significantly in both legs...it's important to be able to make the distinction between pain that's occuring due to the shins re-adjusting to the stresses of running and pain that's occuring due to injury. I decided that as long as it seemed like the pain was going away faster and faster after every run I would continue to increase my distance slowly.

After two weeks of treadmill Workouts I was ready to hit the street (I'm sure we'd all agree that the treadmill is quite possibly the most boring method of exercise ever invented). However, I decided to start on the trails instead of on the road. I began running 2 mile Workouts through the local state park about 2 days per week. Here's where my experience paid off: instead of pushing myself when I felt good and trying to push myself back to my old pace too quickly, I forced myself to run no more than 3 times per week and averaged 2 days per week for about two months. Eventually I began adding in runs on the street also...once again I had shin pain, and once again it slowly faded as I let myself adjust without pushing it too hard.

It's been said about a million times in every publication about training to run ever, but I can admit now just how difficult it is to understand: you have to take it gradually. We all want to believe that we're supermen and that we should be able to push ourselves harder than anybody else without negative affects, but it's simply not true. I've had to turn down runs with good friends and watch 5ks that I would have been able to win a year ago...but it's all been worth it. Now I'm running 8-10 mile long runs at a 7-8min pace and I just finished my 1.5 mile PT run in 8:40.

Also, icing....there's nothing more important when you're trying to come back from a layoff. Using the styrofoam cup method of icing (freeze water in styrofoam cups and peel off the top) I iced my shins 3-4 times daily and I honestly believed this helped speed up my recovery by up to 50%. Not once during the 4 months that I was starting over did I take any NSAIDS or other anti-inflammitories.

I should add that I have also switched running styles. I began running on my forefoot about two weeks into my trail runs and after some initial calf torque (simply due to the fact that my calves were not used to the stress of forefoot landing) I felt better than ever. This is not for everyone but if you aren't stuck in a certain style of running and feel like making the switch I'd definitely recommend it. I don't know very much about this new "Pose" technique people are talking about but it sounds simlilar to the style that I'm running now. You will find that you feel lighter and swifter running forefoot than running heel-ball. Again, this is not for everyone and I'm certain there are heel-ball runners out there that could smoke me after a 12-pack of guiness.

This post has rambled somewhat from my original intent so if anyone has any specific questions about a good workout plan after a long time off please pm me. I've poured through countless texts on running including Galloway's book on Running II Ed., The Runner's Handbook, The Competitive Runner's Handbook, and Running Injury Free. It took me 5 months of trying different things to get over my shin splint problems and I'm very satisfied with my progress after a two month layoff. Now if I could just get those bloody pushup numbers up. Please contact me if you're interested in more specifics.

NAW