Daily Motivation (16 photos)

Make sure you have good quality shoes! You might not be getting the right support for your feet if its you're getting shin splints so early..
Try to ice your shins for about 20 mins (or as long as you can stand it ), massage/rub them, and when you get back into it make sure to stretch a lot! Unfortunately that's all you can really do.. Good luck with your running!! <3

try running on different surfaces. pavement hurts me, but treadmills and grass seems less abrasive at times.

You can also try a physical therapy exercise that will help build up the little muscle that can cause the pain. Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Lift your toes and balls of your feet up off the floor, leaving the heels on the floor. Hold for a count of five, and lower your toes back down. Do this five times a few times a day. I noticed a huge difference when I started doing this with my running.

A major cause of shin splints is increasing your running distance too much too quickly. Stick to lower mileage as well. You definitely don't want to push shin splints because they will lead to a stress fracture and that takes MUCH longer to heal. (trust me, been there. Regret it). You might want to mix up your cardio with some lower impact options so you aren't just running and are giving the shin splints time to heal.

Bad form and/or increasing distance too fast are the main causes. There's a lot of info on proper form. Note how you run barefoot (try on a treadmill or other smooth surface). Your body will naturally adjust your form to what is the best for your joints. That's what you want to recreate when running in shoes.
Also look up the couch to 5K program which will keep you from increasing time/distance too fast.
Shoes are important too. Go to a running store so they can watch how you run and suggest the right shoe.

For now try to do as much in the pool as you can because it will reduce impact on your shins. If you have access to a rowing machine i strongly recommend that for some cardio as well as speed workouts because it works out your whole body and is gentle on your shins. When the splints heal I think you should check out Vibrams for running shoes. I used them to train for a half marathon and ran that mofo in 1:48 for my first one. They really work! And they cost less than 100$. Best of luck and heal soon!

i'm sorry you had to go through that. stay strong girl