First Speed Bump

Meet my first bump in the road, his name is Shin Splints. While I have known many people who have suffered from shin splints, I have never had the distinct pleasure until now.  So I did a little research on the web at Discovery Health, WebMD and the Mayo Clinic here is what I found.

Shin Splints is a term commonly used for several lower leg aliments anything from general soreness to stress fractures. Shin Splints actually refer specifically to a condition called Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS). There are many muscles and tendons that make up the lower leg, or calf region. It's quite a complex formation of inter-weaving and over-crossing muscles and tendons.

The main components of the lower leg that are affected by  shin splints are the Tibia and Fibula. These are the two bones in your the lower leg. There are also a number of muscles that are attached to your tibia and fibula. It's these muscles, that when overworked, pull on the tibia and fibula and cause pain. Specifically, the pain associated with shin splints is a result of fatigue and trauma to the muscle's tendons where they attach themselves to the tibia. In an effort to keep the foot, ankle and lower leg stable, the muscles exert a great force on the tibia. This excessive force can result in the tendons being partially torn away from the bone. If you’ve been lucky enough not to suffer from shin splints, let me tell you they really, really hurt. I was practically in tears after last Thursday’s boot camp.

While there are many causes of shin splints, they can all be categorized into two main groups, overload, and biomechanical inefficiencies.
Overload: Shin splints are commonly associated with sports that require a lot of running or weight bearing activity. However, it is not necessarily the added weight or force applied to the muscles and tendons of the lower leg, but rather the impact force associated with running and weight bearing activities. Other overload causes include: exercising on hard surfaces, like concrete, exercising on uneven ground, beginning an exercise program after a long lay-off period, increasing exercise intensity or duration too quickly, exercising in worn out or ill-fitting shoes, and excessive uphill or downhill running.
Biomechanical Inefficiencies: such as poor running mechanics and flat feet can lead to over-pronation. Pronation occurs just after the heel strikes the ground. The foot flattens out, and then continues to roll inward. Over-pronation occurs when the foot and ankle continue to roll excessively inward. This excessive inward rolling causes the tibia to twist, which in-turn, over stretches the muscles of the lower leg causing pain.

Given that I’ve begun to run more in training for the Mud Run I believe the source of my shin splint pain is from overload. While I want to cautious that this doesn't turn into a chronic injury I also don't want it to sideline me completely. So how do I overcome this bump in the road?  A multifaceted approach of "relative rest" is going to be the key to treating my shin splints. A multifaceted "relative rest" approach, is stopping all high impact exercise, like running, for a period of two week to give my legs some rest and time to heal. Continue with low impact cardio such as stationary bicycling or pool running, Stretching and strengthening exercises twice a day and begin running again only when symptoms have generally resolved and with the following restrictions:
•    A level and soft terrain is best.
•    Distance is limited to 50% of that tolerated pre-injury.
•    Intensity (pace) is similarly cut by one half.
•    Over a three- to six-week period, a gradual increase in distance is allowed.
•    Only then can a gradual increase in pace be attempted.