I've had shin splints for some time now. I didn't know much about them until I read a bit online and discovered that yes, the symptoms I had were consistent with one type of shin splints. I didn't have degenerative issues, just muscular pain from about a half mile to three miles. It was consistent and bothersome during that short two-and-a-half mile length. It didn't appear until around about a half mile and then was gone close to three miles. The reading I did said that some people experience pain until they're warmed up.
But it was annoying, and painful to the point that during that period, I would sometimes have a hard time focusing on the conversation at hand with my running partner because it was one of those very annoying type of pains. It wasn't a damaging or injured type of pain, it felt more like the muscles along the shin bone were trying to cramp, only couldn't quite get there. It was bad enough that I started to become anxious about running.
I took a break from running to focus more on the work with our trainer. My neighbor broke her toe during this time so she wasn't running either. My trainer suggested some exercises I work on to help with shin splints and I worked on those too. I had been asked if I had old shoes or if I had changed shoes because that could be a factor. I had gotten another set of my favorite shoes not long before so I was fairly certain it wasn't those shoes. I'd been told to take anti-inflammatories before running and to roll out the muscles with something like a rolling pin. And I did all of those things.
And still the pain persisted. Sometimes, if I would warm up on the elliptical for a half hour before running, I'd have no pain. But that's an annoying thing to schedule and it's just avoiding the initial distance by running it on another medium.
Then, the other day, I ran and suddenly realized I was in absolutely no pain. Zero. I didn't say anything for the first three miles because I was a bit stunned. Could it have been a freak shin accident that they didn't remember to bother me? I hadn't even taken any Ibuprofen. How strange. Wait one minute, I'm wearing my very old, very very old, worn out running shoes. I had forgotten to change before going out into one of my newer pair.
Could it have something to do with those shoes? I had several other pair of shoes, different in type. One pair I had liked running in so much that I was on the third pair of the exact same shoe. I had another pair of an entirely different brand that I ran in as well. But this pair of shoes and I'm in no pain. I need to do more investigation.
The next day I went back out in my old sneakers with no Ibuprofen and I got the same, pain-free result. Magic. That afternoon I went to the running store and got the newest iteration of that shoe (version eight instead of my original version five) and ran the next day. Still pain-free.
Should I start celebrating now or had I better wait until I cross the finish line at the marathon? For me, I'm just happy to have a solution.
The Big Boy Update: "A joy" is what one of his teachers told me he was today. As it was only the second day of school, I think she must have him confused with another one of the children in her class. Seriously though, she has liked him a lot since last year when he was in her class and she said he has been a great helper and influence on the younger, newer students that just started this year.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Hula hooping. We have a small hula hoop and somehow, somewhere, she's seen someone try and hula hoop with it. She tried again and again this morning to make it go. I tried to get a video of it but I couldn't quite catch it.
Fitness Update: Mid-week medium run of eight miles. We're still slow, but we're getting there.
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