Shin pains jsut before my first race (Read 547 times)

Hi all, I've tried searching for this but i keep comign up with "shin splints" which sounds far more serious that what i have. I've only started running in the last 6 months and agread to do a 10k race which is now fast approaching (only a week and a half away) . I've yet to run a full race distance which is disconcerting enough but when training this evening i got horrible pains running up my shins to the point i had to stop. The pain is local to my shins and stronger on my left leg (my leading leg). is this the start of shin splits? and what can i do to ensure i'm not hit by an injury before this race? ... i've only run 50 miles in my neutral running trainers could this be an issue related to this? any information would be helpful as i'd hate to drop out of my first race due to injury.

Shorten your stride so you aren't landing so hard on your heels which will reduce the amount of shock to your shins. This can be accomplished by increasing your stride rate, it should be somewhere in the 180 step per minute range. In the mean time treat the symptoms by icing and taking ibuprofen to keep the inflammation down. It will also help to do toe lifts to strengthen the ankle dorsiflexors. Just so you know, things like medication, ice, cushy new shoes, exercises, etc. all treat the symptoms of shin splints. Unless you treat the cause, ie. poor form, your shin splints will persist. A good check for proper form is to run barefoot on a hard surface. You'll get instant feedback (in the form of pain) if you are heel striking and you will automatically modify your form to make it go away. The trick will be to remember what you changed and do the same when running in shoes. Tom

I wonder if this could be related to those elusive phantom pains many people start to get 2 weeks out before a race. 2 weeks out from my first race ever I came down with a bad case of achilles tendon problems. After the race was finished they never popped up again. I was feeling real pain in my achilles at the time, but I think now that they were just phantom pains. Many runners experience these phantom pains. One is acutely aware of the slightest little twinges and aches, and oftentimes associates otherwise minor pains with debilitating injuries. Many people I know, myself included, always experience these in the 2 weeks leading up to a race. They are very unnerving. Thus being said, I'm not downplaying, nor am I advocating that you ignore your symptoms! Take things a little easier this next 1.5 weeks, and avoid the temptations to deviate from your training plan. Make sure to rest on days you're supposed to rest, and don't run faster than you're suppose to on your easy days, even if you feel like you can. On another note, if you make your training log visible to the public (Options -> My log preferences --> radio buttons) ppl can probably give you better advice as to how you're training etc. in the future. Best of luck with the 10km. And if you're not going to be able to run this race, there will be many more this year.