The Return of Posterior Shin Splint

They are back !!! (poltergeist catchphrase)

The posterior medial shin split has returned. For some reasons, they never completely go away and always come back to haunt me during marathon training !!!

Usual culprits include shitty biomechanics, over-weight issues, too much training on hard surfaces (the Padang grass field unfortunately was shut because of Formula 1 race), and maybe just my ageing body…

Couldn’t train as hard as I wanted too….typical week includes one workout and one long run. Only did 1 long run of 30k during this cycle, rest were in 20-27k range. No long MP run yet, longest was 21k at 90% MP (or 4.30 min/km), which is only 3h10m pace.

Wouldn't say the injury is extremely painful (maybe not yet??) Have been dilligently managing the issue through icing, voltaren/arnica gels, once a week deep tissue massage, use of orthotics & stability shoes etc

8 weeks left to Osaka…currently pondering whether I should take 1-2 weeks of rest which will leave me about 6 weeks to train (assuming it goes away). Or should I continue to run through the injury?

Anyway, last 3 weeks training below.....

Week of 10-16 Sep

Monday 16km easy run (av 5.05);

Tuesday 9km easy (av 5.15) with 6*15secs hill sprint; 10mins weights

Wednesday 23km run consisting of 5k warm-up, 4 x 3km MP/tempo intervals, with 1km float recovery, splits 12.40, 4.35, 12.32, 4.40, 12.26, 4.48, 12.22 amounting to 15k of work in 64.03 (av 4.16) excluding drink stops, 3k cool down; found the session to be challenging as indicated by the slowing floats

Thursday 7.5km easy run (av 5.22); 10mins weights

Friday AM 10km easy (av 4.59); started slow pace before finishing last couple miles at moderate pace.

PM 7km treadmill run (av 5.35)

Saturday 9km easy with strides (av 5.15)

Sunday 30km long run (av 4.45) consisting of 5km warm up, 20km at 4.30min/km (90% MP), 5km cool down; humid with no wind, so it felt like being inside a steam room, sweated like crazy and had drink stops every 15-20mins.

Total 112km for the week

Week of 17-23 Sep

Monday OFF; but did 20mins elliptical to get junk out of the leg, plus 10mins weights

Tuesday 11km easy (av 5.20) with 5*15secs hill sprint; uber hot day with heat index of 40c, very sore legs

Wednesday 17km run consisting of 4km warm up with drills/strides, 5*1200m @ 3.55-3.57 pace, 2mins jog rec, 7km cool down; original plan was 5*1600 but leg felt shin splinty so I adjusted the reps to 1200m; massage in the arvo

Thursday 8km recovery run (av 5.35)

Friday 21km easy-moderate run (av 4.53), upping the pace every 5k - 70%, 80%, 85%, 90% MP

Saturday 8km recovery run (av 5.27)

Sunday 25km long run (av 4.53), the plan is to do 32k+ long run, very sore shin split and stress on media/tibia was too

Total 95km for the week


Week of 24-30 Sep

Monday 8km recovery treadmill (av 5.35), plus 10mins weights

Tuesday 12km easy with 4 strides (av 5.00), dusted off and wore my old orthotics

Wednesday 21km run consisting of 4km warm up with drills/strides, Tempo Fartlek session - 12mins (4.06), 3mins (3.58), 9mins (4.05), 3mins (3.56), 6mins (4.03), 3mins (3.52), 3mins (4.02), 3mins (3.53), all with 2mins jog in between, total 42mins worth of tempo work, 4k cool down; wanted a workout which wasn’t too stressful on the legs, ran in heavy rain, so quite pleased with the workout

Thursday 12km easy run (av 5.14), torturing massage in arvo

Friday 8km easy run (av 5.28)

Saturday 9km easy run (av 5.00)

Sunday 28km long run (av 4.57); shin split didn’t feel too bad, but hammy and calves were tight

Total 98km for the week