W1R3 Shins Still Hurting

[Colacube]

Should my shins and the tops of my feet still be hurting after 3 runs? I was hoping it would wear off. They actual hurt less when I run, it's more on the walking which I can't do briskly

[Greg_M Graduate]

Try can do for a while I am afraid, it took a good few weeks for mine to build up suitable strength. You need to work through it. If you search "shins can we fix them" on this site I did a bit of an essay on what I did for mine.

Uncomfortable as it is you are not abnormal and nor does it last forever ........ Honest they just need some TLC.

[didntrunthat Graduate]

For me it wasn't until week 5 I think that my shins started getting better and I unfortunately have to say that they got worse after week one - although everyone is different.

Icing after running really helped as well as horse chestnut gel from the chemist. I also found that if I wore to work heels it would make the pain in my shins a lot worse, so tried to avoid them.

[Ettie]

I suffer greatly with shin pain. I find taking Ibuprofen a few hours before a run and also Ibuprofen Gel on my shins just as I am going ou of the door helps. I still get "the ache" but nowhere as bad as I did in the 1st 2 weeks. I found that when I walked inbetween the running bit I got slap foot and had little control over my foot. It is really painfull so I know how you feel. It is getting easier but I am on week 4 and wish it would go away

Good Luck

[Colacube]

Thanks for all your tips, I'll be trying them all because I'm determined to keep going. Glad I'm not alone both in the pain and on the programme. Thanks x

[DuncanS Graduate]

Mine still hurt a bit during a run and for a while afterwards. I'm on week 6.

But the pain isn't any worse than in the early weeks when you only run a fraction of what I'm up to now, and there's no pain at all the following morning so I really do think my shins are getting stronger at the same pace as the programme gets harder. I'm happy with that.

Between weeks three and four I had a week off while I was on holiday and my shins got completely better. I reasoned that this meant there was no really nasty damage in there which would have taken much longer to heal, so it was OK to carry on with the programme.

I'm not very disciplined at toe-taps or heel rises so I'm not doing anything to help other than the actual runs. However, I do make sure I stretch out after every run, particularly kneeling on the heels to stretch the fronts of the shins. I'm sure it helps.

Good luck and keep on running.