Ankle Pain

I had the same issue with the inside of my left ankle and my left shin.  I took almost 4 weeks off running and just iced the hell out of them.  I started running again last week and the ankle doesn't really hurt anymore but the shin is still bugging me, although not nearly as bad.

I went to a sports medicine/orthopedic guy on Monday and he dx'd me with shin splints.  Told me to cut back on my pace and distance (I went from doing 5 miles at 7 minute pace before injury to doing 2 at a 10 minute pace now) and the pain is going away.  I guess I'm going to just keep on putting the ice on and keep going slow until it heals.

Frustrating, but it's the only way to get better I guess. 

Just kind of a follow up...the Dr. I saw on Monday referred me to a PT yesterday who listened to my running history, looked at my training log, and basically told me that I'd been doing everything right.  Then she looked at my symmetry and watched me stretch and run to analyze my gait and said that it looked good.  Based on what I'd told her and what she saw she said she had no ideas how I developed the shin splints and ankle pain. 

Something had to have changed to bring on shin splints and ankle pain after years of pain free running and racing and the only thing I could think of that I've been doing differently is I bought a new bike which has clipless pedals, something I've never used before. 

She guesses that maybe the pulling action of the new pedals may have strained my ankles and the muscles along the front of my shin a bit and that could have been a contributing factor. 

Anyway, Dr's orders are to sit out of the run portion of my race Sunday (sucks), keep stretching and putting ice on and take the anti-inflammatories he prescribed.  I have to go easy for another 2 weeks (1-2 mile runs at what feels like a snail crawl) and then increase mileage but only very very gradually.

I hope to be competing again by July 24th when I have a race and I really want to be back at top form by the Chicago Triathlon in August.  We'll see.  2 months is about how long it took me to go from shin splints to a 6:30 10K pace 4 years ago. 

Mhyte - I would really suggest going to a sports medicine doc and getting evalutated, especially your running mechanics.  I really thought I would have been a candidate for orthotics but they're like $300-$400 and my insurance doesn't cover them.  The good news is after analyzing my running and my shoes the PT told me that they wouldn't do me much good.  Saved me a bunch of money.