Minor injuries can be trained around

I started playing soccer the day I could walk. After a few years of playing in the recreational leagues, my parents gave me the okay to play club ball, which I did in Alabama, Florida and Pennsylvania, and then I went on to play NCAA Division II soccer at Colorado Christian University.

Throughout my life I have had my share of killer training sessions. But, despite the fact all my friends got shin splints from time to time, I had never experienced them, until last week.

According to webMD.com, shin splints can "ruin your game" and can be caused by a lot of different types of physical activity depending on the person. However, runners can often experience shin splints just by switching the intensity of their workout or changing the place they chose to train in.

So it makes sense that I got shin splints this week.

The weather this past week has been great; sunny, and warm enough to take my workouts outside.

This past winter I have mainly trained inside. So my shins are accustomed to treadmill running, but this week I had the opportunity to be reunited with Memorial Stadium.

This week I did a workout I like to call "5,4,3,2,1..." (creative, I know) it basically went like this: five laps around the track, five sets of stairs, four laps around the track, four sets of stairs, and so on and so forth until I got to one.

By the time I got to that last set of stairs I was pretty spent.

However, even though I was pretty sore, I did not feel my shin splints kicking in until that evening when I put on my high heels and walked down those Bramlage Coliseum stairs at the K-State women's basketball game. That was intense.

I remember in Colorado, after long days of preseason training, my teammates would go back to their rooms with ice wrapped around their shins, and I always considered myself lucky I did not have to do that.

That changed Saturday night though when I decided to stop by a gas station on my way home from Bramlage to pick up a bag of ice (I do not have ice cube trays) and used it for my shins.

According to a May 1, 2008 article in Runners World by Jim and Phil Wharton, a good cure when you start to feel pain in your shins is, "to take a few days off from running. You can cross-train, but stick to low-impact activities like swimming, pool running, or cycling."

So, training at the pool or on my bike, along with a lot of ice, is going to be my cure.

I plan on taking some time off running and hitting the pool pretty hard this week. Swimming has been the one area of triathlon training that I continue to dread every time I realize it is on my agenda.

Also, I have been having goggle malfunctions, which seriously impacts my choice to be lazy and not work as hard when in the pool.

I should probably get new goggles soon.

This week's weather forecast is looking pretty nice to me, so, along with getting to the pool, I have penciled in long bike rides into my schedule.

The triathlon I am going to compete in in May has a 13-mile bike course, so I want to take full advantage of preparing myself for that while the weather is agreeable.

Despite the fact I have shin splints, there are still ways to train around them.

A key in training with minor injuries is you have to be flexible with your workout schedule and you have to make sure not to over-work yourself and make the injury worse.

As badly as I want to get outside and go for a good, long run, the smart thing to do is to give my shins a break.

Focusing harder on swimming and biking will probably do me good in the end.

Kelly McHugh is a junior in journalism and mass communications. Please send comments to sports@kstatecollegian.com