So, I was on the second day of the 5 minutes of running and 2 and a half minutes of walking. Last night, before I went to bed, I felt an aching in my left shin. I worried for a moment, but decided not to give it too much thought. Realistically, it couldn’t be anything. I mean, I haven’t increased my mileage dramatically and I haven’t been heel striking or anything. Right?
Well, today I began running and my left shin ached a bit, but I decided to run the first interval and ignore it. Sure it would go away, I plowed through the first five minutes and walked the two and a half. When I ran the next interval, two minutes in, I felt it intensify. It wasn’t a crazy pain, but I don’t want to let it get to a crazy pain that put me out of the game in the first place.
Frustrated, I stopped and decided to do some weightlifting. I humored myself with the tool machines (or at least that’s how I like to refer to them). You know the ones, the crazy giant machines that giant, overly roid’d guys spend hours on.
I tried to use the elliptical, but it wasn’t like the one at my college’s gym, so I felt like I wasn’t really doing anything.
When I got home, I used a heated sports pack and left it on my shin for a while. It felt better, but upon walking around again, I realize it’s pretty apparent. Every step I take, I feel it. It’s almost like my leg was saying, “you fool! You fool!” but I’m not quite sure what I did wrong.
Could it be the fact that I did that one heel strike two days ago? I did it one time and I felt an intense shot of pain in my shin, so I stopped and continued my regular midfoot strike instead. Could one strike cause this? It seems unlikely.
Maybe it is my shoes. Are my shoes really the culprit? I find it hard to believe, because I’ve run in them all summer and fall with no injury. Why are they suddenly shin splint prone shoes?
If they aren’t the problem, then what is the problem?
If they are the problem, how would I ever even know? I felt a pain in the ball of my foot with the Newton’s on. I never ran in the Merrell’s, due to the fact that they fit oddly. Maybe I’ll try a pair of Brooks PureFlow 2 and see what happens.
I just hate to blame a shoe for something if it’s actually just my poor running form. And if it IS my poor running form, why didn’t it injure me WAY earlier (aka over the summer as opposed months later when I was averaging 12 – 15 miles a week). I mean, I get that that could be a lot vs the summer’s interval training, but in all honesty, going from not running at all to running 4 – 6 miles a week was a huge jump without any injury.
:(!
