At my final straw...

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Comments

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Shin splints. Mine didn't stop hurting for 18 months from the age of 20, and I wasn't even attempting to run during that time. I couldn't see the benefit of this and didn't start running again for another six years. The condition has never returned.

    🙂

  • I started club running at 17 and found it the worst possible age to start as you had to race seniors in open xc races from the start, so I decided I should train with them and not drop down to train with the youths. In retrospect I should have swallowed my pride and joined the youths squad for the first year. I have lots of mechanical imbalances and got injured, in fact I spent the whole of my three years at college injured. Luckily I got wiser and I'm still running 32 years later. It's not rocket science and you (sort of) learn eventually to listen to your body. It sounds to me like swimming only is the best plan for now. Perhaps you can ask people around you how you might get back access to a pool? Is there some way of either getting it at reduced cost/free, of can you do some casual work to raise the cash? If at school, can't they help with access? Maybe there are some options you haven't explored yet. Good luck.

  • I am completely resting from all biking and definitely running at the moment! Also with the stretching and calf raises too and the foam roller. Icing and taking ibuprofen. Last time I had it return it disappeared after a week and I waited 2 weeks before even cycling again. The time before that in August when it was really bad it took about 4 weeks. I'm just going to give it 8 (with swimming somehow like Joe suggests) and see how it goes when I get there. I'd go for physio but I'm skint... literally!

  • Ask at Chester College (Liverpool Uni as it calls itself now) if there's any students who want to practise massage on your calves for the experience.  Don't forget that you actually have achieved some spectacular feats, people will be well disposed to helping you out you know.

  • That's a good idea- I'll look into that, thanks. I have friends who are sports masseurs but they don't live locally. I might try and teach mum how to do it but I'd be paranoid about her doing it wrong and making it worse. Need to see my Physio and ask whether massages are advisable at this stage too.

  • WiB wrote (see)

    Donkey - ^^^ is a good example of patience and working correctly towards resolving injury issues. Take a note.

    DIS - Enjoy your HM!

    Thanks WiB. Unfortunately now come down with flu, so whether I'm going to be running at all slightly in question - it seems to be a bit better today, but was totally wiped out Saturday afternoon and yesterday and don't want to take any chances on it (well, my bf has actually banned me from even travelling up unless I'm 100% fit on Friday).

     

    Blackdonkey - re foam rolling, it's not about putting lots of pressure. You need to keep the roller moving even when it's hurting, and not slow down on the tender bits (this is really hard I know!). Work the muscle in stages to flush it - do lower calf only first, then upper calf. For quads, roll in stages starting from the knee, about 3 inches then sideways friction and knee bend a few times, then next 3 inches etc... It makes a huge difference to the flexibility you can get out of the muscles. It's important to relieve tension in all these muscles, not just roll your shins.

  • DIS - not saying your advice re. foam rolling is wrong or anything, but it's almost the total opposite of the advice I was given from my own physio.

    She told me I should slow down and even stop altogether on the tender spots, just letting the pressure of the roller work away at the knots/scar tissue in the muscles. She said I should work on small bits, just as much as a couple of inches at a time. And she also told me to work from the top of the calf to the bottom, as once you've eased the larger part of the muscle, you can put more pressure on the achilles tendon if that's also giving problems.

    Various foam rolling sites seem to give conflicting advice too. Looks to me like it's maybe all relevant - seems hard to go wrong with foam rolling... Any physios care to explain if there's actually a right and a dead wrong way to use them? As far as I can tell, having been using one for a while now, it's all good. Nothing I've done with mine hasn't been beneficial, and I make half of it up as I go along!

  • Don't know, that was the advice I was given on my 6 month rehab programme.

  • The pickle is that this week, when the pain came back I'd also been doing my calf strengthening as told as well as stretching calfs, hamstring and quads, strengthening of my tibialis posterior muscle and using the foam roller on the calfs for a few bursts of 2-3 minutes a day. I'm not sure whether the cycling brought back the pain or the calf stuff. But I stopped as soon as the pain turned up one day- and carried on doing the calf stuff. I took a day or two off from stretching it etc, and now they feel tight as hell, but the pain has eased a lot. I'm hoping my Physio can enlighten me a bit on Tuesday next week when I see her next! image

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