Losing Patience

[skwashie]

oook so I am supposed to be testing for MDSP next month, and for the life of me I can not get my legs conditioned. I think there is a problem. Running I have a problem with my left leg, after about a 1/4 mile sometimes less my left leg ont he front outerside throbs and hurts like crazy. It gets to the point that i have to walk or run with a limp for a bit to relieve the pain, then another 1/4 and its just as bad. I have tried new shoes, old shoes, different kinds of shoes. Attempted to shorten and lower my strides to reduce shock, and even use muscle cream before running now, nothing helps... This is a big problem for testing next month. Any suggestions or placesi should look for information, or stretching examples for those muscles there, anything would be great... Im losing patience fast, and need to get myself conditioned.

[Phoenix]

I have the same problem with my shins. The muscle that runs the length of the shin bone on the outside of my leg gets very pumped and painful. Sometimes it's so bad it hurts to walk after a run. I recently went to a very good running shoe specialist and this is what she told me. Pain on the inside of the shins occurs when you overpronate; the solutions is shoes that provide more stability. Pain on the outside of the shins indicates you need more cushioning in your shoes. She also said that scar tissue can cause this problem on the outside of the shins and recommended a few sessions of deep tissue massage to break up any scar tissue.

Another thing to try. Cross one leg over at the ankle. Dig you fingers into the muscle on the outside of your shin and then flex your foot by contracting that muscle. Work you way up and down the muscle while flexing and relaxing it. Be aggressive with it, it's a little painful, but it helps.

I have not tried the massage yet; however, I did just purchase a pair of Asics Gel-Kayano shoes with a set of high quality off-the-shelf orthotics and that seems to have helped some. Shoes and orthotics = $170

Good luck,

Phoenix

[ProWriter]

Hi Aaaron, Phoenix:

Originally posted by Phoenix
I have the same problem with my shins. The muscle that runs the length of the shin bone on the outside of my leg gets very pumped and painful. Sometimes it's so bad it hurts to walk after a run. I

I'm on a slow, expensive connection on the road here for another week or so and I don't have time to find and paste what I recently posted on this, but look through my last post on the shin splint thread (I think) where I added the part about "anterior tibial compartment syndrome" about two weeks ago. Deep massage on days off and a cold pack immediately after a run are good too.

I have the same problem and the massaging and mineral ice prior to running seemes to help, and I've never been a big fan of muscle rub type gels for most things people use them for. Be careful with store bought orthotics though: they can cause more problems than they solve and the money is probably better spent on custom orthotics and moderately priced shoes than vice-versa.

[krj]

Something else you may want to take a look at is the length of your warm-up.

I have been experiencing this same pain on and off for the last month or so, and it took me a while to figure out what was happening. I usually bookend workouts during the week (one morning - one night), and I really dislike running on a treadmill. With the days getting shorter I have been much more eager to get out onto the roads after work to get a run in before dark. Because of the shorter days, and wanting to put in some mileage, my warm-up time has gotten shorter and I have been trying to hit my normal running pace earlier.

Same thing - within a quarter-half mile the outer shin starts to hurt and I end up slowing my running pace down until the pain goes away (which it always does). The pain always hits early, but once I am properly warmed-up I don't have any problems at all for the rest of my run.

Bottom line (at least for me) is that I need that first 5-10 minutes to warm-up - to gradually even out the heart rate, increase muscle temperature, open up my stride and increase my pace. If I try to rush it it ends up hurting.

I have mentioned it before in one of the other running threads - for your fit-test really make sure that you are warmed-up properly (have had at least 5-10 minutes prior to the test to walk, jog, run, stride, stretch - whatever it is that you do prior to your runs).

If you are running a 1 1/2 mile test in 15 minutes, you just really don't want to spend one third of your test warming up. Your times will reflect that.

[skwashie]

thanks pro and krj -
any suggestions on beneficial stretching that targets that outer area of the leg?

[ClemsonGrad]

eat more bananas!

[ProWriter]

Aaron:

Plug in "shin splints" in the search function and it should bring up the shin splint thread with the post about stretching out those muscles OK?