everyone here seems highly opinionated so i thought you guys might have some advice for me. i started running for the first time in march. i went to a running store where they looked at my feet and my stride and showed me various pairs of shoes to try. i ran in each pair and selected one that felt best. i ran for several months and kept having trouble with shin splints so i took most of the summer off from running. i started again last week and ran 1 1/2 miles 3 times (only half of what i had been doing). i did the same thing yesterday and today and now my shins (especially my right one) hurts so bad that i can barely walk. i don't know what else to do: i took time off, i started again gently, i never run more than 2 days in a row, i ice them afterwards, and try to do some strengthening exercises that i read about on the internet.

any thoughts or suggestions? i dont want to give up on running altogether.

You're shoes probably have too much of a built-up heel. This forces an eccentric muscle contraction of the anterior tibialis upon footstrike.

Try running on a softer surface. Try running up hills and walking down them. Strengthen you ant. tib's by walking around on your heels, also by dong toe raises (not heel raises. toe raises.)

If you want to run for, say, three miles, try running 5 minutes, then walking 3. Walk for 10 or 15 minutes before you start running to warm up you legs. Walk fairly quickly.

often riding a bike )with clipless pedals, so you can pull up as well as push) helps too. focus on pulling up when you ride.

thanks for the help. i should have mentioned that i only run on trails that aren't paved and i walk for about ten minutes to warm up first.

You're shoes probably have too much of a built-up heel...

It seems to me that many shoe mfgs have hardened the heals of their shoes the last few years. I don't know why, but I had a pair of Nikes that were really soft. I loved them, I could walk, run, and even climb in them a little. They had great traction except on wet rock - then they were deadly. Had a pair of Montrails that were very soft. Despite their looks these were the coolest shoes I have ever owned. They were footprint was big and floppy - but they were soft and I could run in them till the cushioning wore out fairly quickly. I replaced both these shoes with the new models. Both have narrower more precise footprints. I thought I would love both these shoes because they had enhancements that I thought wold work better. Ultimately their hard heels turned me off for quite a while.

Tried and still occasionally run in a pair of New Balance 803s. These feel have soft heels, and that’s really why I'm writing. I can wear these shoes about anywhere if I need to. Unfortunately they are hot and feel inefficient (slow). They are great on I rocky trails though. They are pretty tough and have lasted well too. Note that they have a very stiff toe guard that bothers some people.

More recently I purchased a pair of Asics solely to run a few (benefit) races on pavement. They have hard heels, but felt good at the store. Still got mild shin splints after 3mi races on pavement though.

All this is what stated my questions last thread. What I can say from experience is, in the short term to look for soft healed shoes. Try a pair of new Balance shoes if you haven't, before you give up. As recommended in a recent thread, long term - work to reduce heel strike

Tico: I believe that shoes don't matter much to you. My theory is that with good mechanics they won't matter that much - and someone at your level must have good mechanics. The rest of us will have to do what we can. Shoes training, whatever.

I wrote the shoe "review" because I think they might be helpful to those that need them. Problems is that models come and go faster than I can wear them out.


Mark H.


PS: I ate it last night. Caught a toe on a root in the woods at dusk (dark under the trees). Luckily I just slide on my hands and knees in the fine black sand atop the harder trail. Haven't done that in a while. Just happy no damage done.

*My* shin splints were caused by overpronation (the EXCESSIVE inward rolling of the foot as I move through the foot strike from heel to toe. Have someone run behind you on a smooth level surface and watch your feet. You may also try looking down and seeing if you can tell how much you pronate (a small amount is no problem). Also *in my case* a wide and/or flared heel on the shoe made it worse, by moving the initial heelstrike point outside and away from my heel. This created something of a pivot point which then accelerated the rolling motion. Many of my shoes became better after I cut rubber off the outside edge of the heel.

If any of this seems to fit you, you are a candidate for motion control shoes. These are often heavy, stiff, and less energetic to run in. But ironically, I also ran well in very thin shoes, which had less compliance due to less midsole and thus afforded less opportunity for exaggerated pronation.

Be careful, shin splints can be a symptom of or progress into something worse like a stress fracture. Run a tuning fork up and down your shin bone. If it hurts like crazy you may have the latter.

Do your shin splints affect the inside or outside part of your shin? Most people seem to get them from front to outside.

I get them on the inside and slightly behind the shin (Between the thick part of the calf and the shin)

Anyone else get them like that?

From these tips given here, I have found something that seems to be working for me. I push off harder or stride harder. I run faster and my cadence goes up, but My feet leave the ground farther in back of me than they had been. The result is that they touch the ground less far out front with dramatically reduced strike! I also notice that my heels do snap up to my butt and back to the ground faster, and that my knees got through less arc, not more! I can foresee that as I get faster my stride may lengthen out front a bit. But thinking about it now I realize that there is no good way to apply forward force with your feet out in front of you, and that you want expend most of your energy with your feet below and behind you.

Though I have not recently run barefoot (the track was just resurfaced –and security warned me not to run on it yet. Didn’t ask why.) I do think that running barefoot would have taught/reinforced the same form.

Mike: I may have similar problems, and I think that finding shoes so seemingly dissimilar they seemed to work for me is what caused me so much confusion.

I did not read all the post so someone may have mentioned this but I had shin splints really bad and the cure was custome made orthodics and exercises to strenghthen the muscles around the shin area. Ever since then i have never had problems. I would not use store orthodics because they are not made to your foot pattern. Have a ortho docter make one. They make such a difference.

I used to run 6 miles a day in combat boots, never had a problem with shin splints during the runs. I could also walk forever in those boots. But at a fast walk, between 3 and 4 mph, I would get really nasty shin splints that would have me hobbling within a 1/4 mile. Forced marches were killers, only an incredibly high tolerance for pain got me through them.

I have no problems running in any type of shoe; but no matter what type of shoe I wear, running, trail, combat, hiking, snowboarding, dress... I get shin splints between 3-4mph. So, at least in my case, it has nothing to do with the shoes but with the way my feet and legs work at that pace and stride. I've tried various things over the past 20 years including superfeet, but nothing has helped.

Someone told me that my shin muscles were too overdeveloped, and that they were pulling away from the shin... he told me to try taping my shins! Never tried it though.