Rehab soon finished, where can i run?

This is the day 40 of 56 on my rehab, after the 56:th day i'm going to start jogging gently again but there are no soft surfaces to run on during winter! What should i do? Been out 9 months soon due to shin splints, it sucks.

Why are there no soft surfaces to run on in winter? The parks, fields, and trails are still there, I'm happily running on them.

If you really are struggling outdoors you could always restart on a treddie which should be a little more forgiving. That or just start with very slow  short jogs on the road and build up carefully.

Any surface which isn't road/concrete can be considered "soft" in comparison. Even frozen ground has more give in it or do you not have an athletics track near you?

Is a "dirt road" ok? I'm not really sure on the english word, sorry.

This: http://pastorron7.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/autumn-dirt-road1.jpg

Yes, Johannes - just stay off concrete/roads/tarmac. Build up very slowly - when rehabilitating from a stress fracture last year my first session back was 5 minutes brisk walk, 15 minutes jog, 5 minutes brisk walk. I did that 3 times the first week. Second week I increased the "jog" bit to 20 mins 3 times. Back off if you get any adverse reaction and when you get home ice the area for 10/15 mins whether it hurts or not!! Good luck..... I bet you're itching to get back out there. Just take it very easy.

Thankyou very much Tigerlily for answering my questions! The first sessions when i start jogging again, i will walk for some minutes, then jog carefully for 20 seconds and repeat that X amount of times.

If i manage to do that several sessions without it hurting, i am thinking about testing this program designed for stress fractures: http://pfitzinger.com/labreports/stressfracture.shtml

What do you think about it?

If i do that schedule, what do you think i should do if it starts hurting during a session and i can't run anymore? Immediately after, i will ice the area and stop running immediately ofcourse, but what about the following sessions? Should i follow the schedule or start over from the beginning again?

The schedule looks ideal Johannes. If it starts hurting during a session stop running and just walk. Go home - ice. Leave it 2 days then try again. There was a lot of stop/start with my rehab! I did no running at all for 16 weeks then started back on a similar programme to the one you are looking at. It took a further 6 - 8 weeks to build up before I could even think about getting back to "normal" running routine.

Do you know why your shins reacted like this? Shins often are an outcome of something else being wrong not a primary injury. Have you addressed the issue? If not then you may find that your shins will still give you trouble.

Tigerlily - sorry to intrude on this thread but hearing about your SF I have got a suspected one (hip) and waiting for diagnosis by MRI scan in the next week or two. Obvviously depends on what it is and a long way off rehab yet but would be interested to hear how yours was and how you got back to normal.

Thanks!

Meanwhile looking forward to a swim this afternoon, not something I would usually say

Sorry to hear that Elpeth. My SF was Fibula - not as worrying as one in the hip/pelvice or femur. Everyone is different with SF's. Mine should have cleared up in 8 weeks as the fibula is a non-weight bearing bone but because of biomechanical problems and other problems it took a lot of rehab. Not so much for the fibula - that healed but the reason it went was due to problems I was unaware of much higher up in my spine core and glutes. So my rehab (still on-going, though I am running) was more to do with strengthening key areas.

The thing is, once healed, a S-Fractured area is stronger than it was before the fracture - so "they" say. Have you had an x-ray? SF's don't usually show up until they have begun to heal because it is the new bone growth which shows up. They don't always show up on MRI either....and it takes a specialist usually to spot them.

Tigerlily - I got it like this: Stopped playing soccer when i was 15, rested 3 years until i started playing a little bit again in a nonserious team. I hadn't been runing anything at all (almost) before i jumped straight into a game, only on very few occassions. I felt pain on the inside of both my shins after the first game, it was really painful, but i was very dumb so for the next game (even though it hurted when i walked) i took an aspirin and smeared in my shins with gel, which made me able to run without pain, but after that game i stopped playing, and now i have been out for 9 months. I think it was that i started doing "too much too soon". I have orthopedic insoles that i have tried running in, but i don't really know if they help (i am still going to run in them just in case). During the months that followed after my last game, i rested and then when i felt the pain was gone, i foolishly went out running again. I tried to stretch and do some rehabexercises on my own for three weeks and tried to start running after those three weeks, but the pain wasn't gone.

I know though that the more i rested from running, the longer i could run before the pain came. I maybe rested 4-6 weeks at a maximum, but now i haven't been running for ages (i have done some jogging on a matress and i get a little bit sore after that, probably because i did it very intense once, so i will cut back with the intensity in that exercise.

I have bought the Nike Freerunner 2.0 that i'm going to run in, i'll put my expensive insoles in those shoes. I just hope i'm going to be alright soon enough

P.S - I have 15 days left of my "no-running rehab" (day 41 today), then i'm going to start jogging again.

Thankyou for helping me.

P.S2: The shoes i started playing soccer in when i got the problems were at least 4 years old, but i only use new shoes now.

Thanks tigerlily, appreciate that. I'm aware that it's a more serious problem if it occurs in neck of femur, that's not to make light of yours in any way but I am guessing I need to wait for the MRI, which is on the 8th though I have no idea how long they take to be reported. X Ray as you say was normal.

Main symptom seems to be groin pain,  initially only on running but progressed to on walking as well and am limping. Why it should occur now rather than a few months ago when I was doing heavier mileage I don't know.

Anyway remains to be seen what it actually is. Encouraging to know you are back running.

JJ - good luck with your rehab, I hope it goes well for you.

OK Johannes - you have been in the wars!

Firstly, I am not a physio or professional but I do have a lot of experience. I've been a runner for 35 years and never really had any problems until 3 years ago.

What I do know is this... shoes or insoles will not help you if your problem stems from weakness elsewhere. If you are weak in the core and particularly in the glutes your legs will over rotate as you move through your running gait and this puts excess stress through your shins and can cause all sorts of problems from hip to achillies! Your core needs to be strong and your pelvis stable in order to achieve the most efficient injury-free running action. I'm not saying it will sort everything but believe me, almost everything is affected by your core - without core strength and stability you are really on a hiding to nothing. To run in minimalist shoes like the Nike free - you need to be as strong and stable as you can get yourself to be.

The thing is - as amateur runners we all run on a knife edge. None of us are as bio-mechanically sound or as supple or as strong in key areas as we should be. We're not elite athletes being looked after by a team of physios and podiatrists! We get away with the imperfections until one day something, some trigger tips the balance and you fall off the knife edge. Then everything unravels and you have to sort out the primary reason for your injury. To me, shin splints are usually an outcome of something else. Shin problems aren't usually caused by old or "wrong" shoes.

The thing is that my core IS strong, i've been strengthtraining for three years too (same time as when i quit soccer) and i regularly do heavy squats and deadlifts.

If you're sure it's not a core/glute issue - have you had your strength tested by a physio then I'm not sure. When my problems started I was gobsmacked! I didn't believe any of my problems could be down to weakness - after all I was a fell runner, regularly running long distances over the most challenging of environments. I went to the gym, mainly in the winter TBH but was sure my core/glutes were strong. However I was wrong. I thought "core" meant "sit-ups" etc and my abs seemed fine. Core is more than that though, it's all the tiny structures deep in the pelvis and the trans abs which support the lower back and pelvis. For me, it's been a long hard recovery - it's taken a lot of hard work in the gym with a physio to get sorted. Once the core was in place then it was keeping on top of that in addition to drills to strengthen the glutes and glute medious. My running style has changed dramatically. I now midfoot strike - there is virtually no wear anywhere other than midfoot on my trainers I just feel more "forward" when I run and stronger.

Obviously not everyone is the same, but for you to have such a severe reaction that has you out for 9 months something is not right.

I had also gained 13 kg from when i quit soccer and started strengthtraining (fat+muscles), maybe that can be a problem/factor too. But i still feel that 67kg (my bodyweight when i tried to play soccer again) isn't very much (171 cm)

No your height/weight seem fine. I don't know Johannes. I'd still suspect a bio-mechanical or muscular imbalance problem somewhere. Still, you can only try your rehab programme and see how it goes as we discussed earlier. If it hurts - back off. Ice the areas after every run/jog regardless of whether it hurts or not.

If you do have further problems (who knows - perhaps you'll be absolutely fine! ) could you see a physio and discuss the problem with them?

I am going at a physio actually, just wanted some input from other people, and what you have written has helped me, thankyou.

Ok - let us know how you go! Hope it all works out for you.

Will do! Thanks for the help!

I wish I could be more help Johannes! Injury can be so frustrating!