Having trouble deciphering between sore and injured (Read 799 times)

extreme soreness will inevitably lead to injury if you persist on running through it. So if you're injured, or just extremely sore is really a moot point... the end result will be greater injury! Take things slow. Better safe than sorry. If you feel sore don't push it. If you're not injured the soreness will eventually go away as you build up to your pre-injury volume. If you are injured, then you aren't going to exacerbate the symptoms. Remember... you can screw up your schedule for a few days or a week, or you can injure yourself to the extent you won't be able to run at all for the next month or more. I know its hard, but try and have restraint! runners are horrible at listening to their injuries. Go and pool run or X-train on a bik or ellliptical, or whatever floats your boat. good luck!

I'm currently in the middle of fighting shin issues myself. I googled around and found the cause cold be one of several things... Increasing mileage too quickly. Change in training, e.g., adding speed work. Wearing old shoes. Mechanics, do you pronate, supinate, etc. Maybe you need different shoes or orthotics. Then you get to what the problem actually is. Muscle fatigue Tendon Fascia Bone All this can make your head spin. Start by going through the potential causes. How much are you increasing mileage? Are you running most of your mileage at an easy pace? Etc., etc., etc. MTA: To answer your original question. I think of soreness as something I can work through with a recovery run or two. Whereas an injury (or potential injury) is something that does not improve, or gets worse, even when I am running at recovery pace.

I have been through the shins thing quite a few times. Everytime that I take time off and decrease mileage, I end up with shin pain as I build up mileage again. I think the best thing to do is to stay consistent. A few years ago, my first instinct was to drop back my miles and take time off until their was no pain. I went through this routine many times. Each time, I would wait for the pain to subside, then start building my mileage again but sure enough the pain would return. Lately, I have found that I will typically get over the shin issues if I continue to stay consistent with my mileage. I stay consisent, and I will also shift around hard days or take days off if the pain gets excessive. Unfortunately, I have no sure fire way to know when it is excessive, but I try best to listen my body. Obivously, don't increase mileage during this time, but try to stay steady. I would also avoiding adding new workout types (hills, intervals, etc.) if you are not used to them. It has taken me numerous years of consistent running to get a feel for my body. I have also found that utilizing strengthening exercises have helped greatly. Take a look around the web and you should find some good strengthening routines. One last piece of advice: Ice. I never used to believe in icing my injuries, but now at the first sign of pain, you can find me with an ice pack on the affected area. Usually, the more painful it is, the more vigilant I am about icing. Hopefully, this advice helps. Hope you can get well soon.

Well it looks like I am dealing with stress fractures. You may want to look into why you are experiencing the shin pain. There may be a simple remedy that will head off something worse down the road. I am not saying that it will happen to you, but my experience is that shin pain can lead to a stress fracture.