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muscular pain in lower leg - any ideas?
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Hi,
What a great website - this is my first post in the forums and I'm loving the wealth of information on here. I've tried searching for this pain I'm experiencing but it's hard to describe.
I'm an on and off runner. Have done a few 10k races over 2 years but only train in the run up to the race, rather than maintaining my fitness through out the year.
Have been training for about 4 weeks for my latest 10K which is in about 3 weeks. I've got the fitness to run the distance but I want to improve my speed. I've careful to steadily increase my general running pace, or I'll sprint in bursts during a run. I have been increasing my stride as welll as my cadance.
When I run slightly faster than my normal pace (and my normal pace is slow! I get a pain in both my lower legs, just above the ankle, just below the shin, at the front. I'm pretty sure this is a muscular pain as I can usually stretch it out after the run. Although I feel the pain in both legs, the right legs suffers more than the left. If I keep up the pace I eventually have to stop and walk off the pain. Slowing down helps alleviate the pain but this is frustrating when I want to improve my overall speed. I'm not sure what other helpful information I can offer to describe this.
I'm currently running about 3 - 4 times a week, but last week I gave myself a 6-day rest to see if it helped. It didn't, and the pain came back after about 0.5 mile at average pace.
Is this simply matter of conditioning the leg/muscle? Lengthening my stride and running faster has affected the way my foot impacts the ground. Should I power through the pain? Could there be another explanation?
Any help is greatfully received.
Mike.
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Comments
Pain is generally there for a reason Mike and usually best not to ignore or 'power through'
Are you shoes of the correct style for you and how old are they? What surface are you using for your speedowrk and how many sessions do you do a week?
I would have a google of shin splints and see if this matches ?
does any of this fit the bill?
various lower leg problems associated to running
My shoes are 3 years old Mizuno shoes bought from a specialist running shop. Although they haven't done that many miles, maybe only 200 or so and are in good condition.
I run almost exclusively on the road, but have recently started to alternate between road and park running.
I have done between 3-4 runs a week, at my natural pace which has been fine. After 3 weeks of this I started to speed up my running ever so slightly which is when I noticed the pain.
I read the link above and I would describe it exactly as that. I never thought it was shin splints. I have a good friend who is a qualified physio and after speaking to him he didn't think it was shin splints. Also, another Marathon running friend of mine also suggested it probably isn't shin splints. Although the description in the link above to anterior shin splits sounds spot on.
I'll try the exercise steps in the link and look at getting some new shoes.
Thanks for all your help. I'll update this post after a week or so.
Mike.
and try this... its dead clever!!!
http://getbodysmart.com/ap/muscularsystem/footmuscles/tibialisanterior/tutorial.html
new shoes every 200-400 miles or every 6 months - whichever is shorter
when you say 'lengthening your stride' does this mean landing with your front foot extended way beyond your centre of gravity? if so, that's a recipe for injury
I've recently had alot of time off with something very similar - in fact probably identical.
The podiatrist didn't describe it as anterior shin splints but it sounds very similar.
It left me with 6 weeks off and now a very, very slow return to running.