Shinsplints suck!

And they do.

I was so much pain by the end of my workday yesterday.  I tried to stay off my feet, but it is so difficult.  I have to be moving around.  My students will even tell you that I fidget a lot too.  Lol.  But yes....  Shinsplints suck.

So yesterday, out of curiosity, I went to http://www.webmd.com/ to plug in my ailments and see what it came up with.  100% match with shinsplints.  Ha.  Dave was right.  Lol.  The website had a pretty informative article on shinsplints.

I'm trying to avoid depending on pain killers to dull the pain.  I have a high tolerance for pain, so sometimes I don't always realize how much it hurts until it is unbearable.  I mentioned to Dave that the article said to put on a neoprene sleeve for support and warmth.  He then said to use one of his Dura-Aid sleeves on my shins.  I had used a couple of his when I injured my elbow, but they were elbow sleeves.  Now....  I am a tiny person and I have very small calves.  His shin sleeves fell to the ground like stretched out socks.  So I put the elbow sleeve on my lower leg and it fits great.  He gave me another sleeve for the other leg.  They're basically compression  bandages of sorts.  He sells them in his Amazon & eBay stores.

I slipped those things on and it was INSTANT comfort!  I've been wearing them all day at work and I have NO pain.  Some discomfort when I flex my shin muscles, but nothing excruciating.  Good lord these things are awesome.  I totally recommend using compression sleeves on your calves/shins if you have shinsplints.

And this leads Dave and I to something else.  In all my running magazine and books, I always see ads and pictures of people wearing compression socks.  At the race last weekend, there were a number of people wearing them as well.  They range in price from $30 - $70 so I figured they were overpriced socks.  Lol.  But after wearing these compression sleeves, I wonder if they do something similar.  Dave says I should wear these Dura-Aid things while running, but I can already tell that they'd get itchy and hot.  They don't "breathe" all that well.  I may go to Big Peach Running and buy a pair of compression socks to try out.  Might be worth looking into.....

One thing the article did mention is that swimming is an excellent cross-training for runners with shinsplints.  Bad news is that it isn't unusual for shinsplints to take 3-6 months to heal.  This is unacceptable.  I must heal faster than that.