Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Injury Frustration - Need Help!!

For some reason, I've completely lost the ability to heal myself over the past week. My lingering shin injury hasn't gotten any better over the past 7 days. I've tried everything from Arnica to Zulu witch doctor chanting, and nothing seems to help. I still can't walk more than a 100 feet or so before the pain flairs up again. Obviously running 100 miles in this condition is impossible, but I'm holding out hope that someone out there has a remedy for shin splints or other such stress injuries that will help me. I will try anything over the next 4 days if it will let me at least start the Iron Horse. Obviously I'm not going to go down there and do some serious damage to myself, but I do want to at least try to run as many pain-free miles as possible....if possible.

Advice? Remedies? Anyone?

7 comments:

scooping it up said...

A little prayer or two never hurt anyone. Wish I had something better, good luck Danny Boy! It is so frustrating to be betrayed by one's body.

Dan Rose said...

It would definitely be a bit selfish to waste any prayers on a silly thing like running in a race like this...

...unless, of course, you know of any magical gods of analgesic healing out there. If so, pray away for me. Tell them I'm a huge fan.

TonyP said...

I would first say ice, ice, ice. I had some shin splint issues in the past, and found that icing several times a day helped in the short term. Of course, rest, elevation, and compression would be beneficial, but you only have 3 days left until the 100.

I also found stretching to help with shin splints, at least for me.

Good luck !

TonyP said...

Oh, I forgot...compression socks. They have worked well with shin splints for me and several others.

Dan Rose said...

Thanks for the advice, Tony...I've been R.I.C.E-ing for a week now with little positive results. Can't figure out why this won't go away. Since I don't want to risk the rest of my schedule on doing even more damage, I most likely will just head to Iron Horse and volunteer for the race if things don't take a turn for the positive in the next couple days.

I'll take a healthy and fast Bull Run in April over a stress fracture in Florida this weekend!

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, and it's probably not the problem since you are a lighter (and better!) runner than me, but I ran in the Aether Tech's over Christmas time and they drove my shins crazy...don't know if you have time to switch shoes at this late date, but it might be worth a try...Charlie M.

Dan Rose said...

Thanks for the tip, Charlie. I haven't met too many people who have worn the Aether Techs yet, so I appreciate your feedback!

I've actually been walking around in the super-cushioned Brooks Glycerins since the injury, but even that hasn't helped. I clearly did some real damage to the soft tissue in my shin, and I think only extended rest will help at this point.

Sure, I'm still going to head down to FL and try to at least start the race, but at this point I'm more than content with the plan to stop after one loop (or less) and volunteer the rest of the day.