Well I hate to post on here but I'm honestly at wits end. (I'm 26, male) I'm on the verge of finally quitting running for good. Since August 2017 I had this problem and nothing I've tried has fixed it. Back in 2014-2016 I was running 40-60 MPW and never had issues. I took some time off in summer 2017 and came back and tried building back up but I couldn't shake the pain.
The pain is on the inside of my left shin, right on the tibia bone. I had it a few times in HS but I got over it and ran fine. After the pain started in late 2017, I basically couldn't run more than one week consistently without the pain. In 2018 I actually got up to 40 MPW and the pain was manageable but as I was getting fitter (and runs getting faster) they got to painful so I had to stop.
Now as of late, I barely run 1-2x a week. I just go out and jog 30 minutes at 7:40-8:10 pace (Used to be able to run over an hour at 6:50-7:10 pace). Sometimes I'll do a 45 minute run at 8:00-8:30 pace. If I even run more than twice a week or two days in a row, the pain comes back and stays for days.
For instance I ran two days in a row last week. I did a 30 minute easy jog Friday and 45 minute run Saturday. Felt ok. Took some days off and ran 30 minutes Tuesday. My shins felt fine for the first couple minutes but then the left inside of my shin started aching. Just this dull nagging pain and it got a little worse towards the end and turned into some sharper twangs of pain. I also get it on my right shin (inside) but not as severe. After I finished the run my shins really started aching after I stopped for about another half hour. Then the pain went away. That's usually the stage I get to ANYTIME I even think about getting back into running. If I run once or twice a week no pain basically. Anything more and this happens. It really sucks.
My shins felt sore for a day or so but I took two days off then ran easy 30 minutes yesterday. No pain at all until about 3:30 into it, then I felt my left shin ache but then it felt ok, the pain was a little different than Tuesday. Felt more localized but not as bad. Still felt some pain after. Now my left tibia is very tender to the touch, and there's one spot right on the bone on the lower third that really hurts to touch and everything up and above hurts less but still tender.
Basically the lower two-thirds of my left shin is very tender and there's one spot that's really tender. It's right on the bone, and I also feel a crap-ton of lumps and bumps along it too all the way up to my knee.
Normally I stop running here because...what's the point? Over the years once it gets to this stage, I'll keep running and then I'll get random jabs of pain from sitting down. I'll also get stabbing pains in the morning sometimes too. The pain gets too severe for me to enjoy running by that point so I stop.
On an interesting note - I'll especially feel pain when I'm in the car and not when it's moving but when it's on but stopped (like on a red light for instance) and the vibrations of the engine cause this nagging ache on what feels like my bone whenever my left leg is resting on the car's floor.
I've tried just about everything. For instance:
- Took 3 months off at one point (no running at all) and came back doing the whole run-walk thing and as soon as I got up to 5-10 minute runs pain came back (this was 2019).
- Tried doing poor man's Graston technique on myself (stupid, I know) where I put Vaseline all over the shin and scrapped the inside of my tibia with the handle of a butter knife till it was raw/red then iced it hard after. This used to work in 2014 whenever I felt pain coming on. This one's different though. I suppose it breaks down scar tissue? It didn't work the last couple years.
- Tried different shoes. Even tried some barefoot running. Nothing.
- Iced it like crazy. Foam rolled it like crazy. Before/after runs.
- Wore shin sleeves. They helped a tiny bit, but again can't do anything more than 2 days.
- All kinds of massages I could try. Even ice massage. It would eventually get too tender and painful for me to even massage anyways.
- I actually got a bone scan (not MRI) in early 2019 when the pain was coming on. They found NOTHING.
- I'm not calcium/vitamin D deficient either. Iron is good. I'm basically perfectly fine there.
So in essence, my running is ruined. I've gotten into lifting to get some muscle since tired of having little twiggy arms/wrists especially as a 25 year old male. I struggle to bench anything over 100 lbs. (I'm 155 lbs. 5'8) so yeah it makes no sense becoming a twig 'cause I'm not that fast/talented anyways. Problem is I don't want to give running up because of this stupid condition. I still love it and even if I get fully into lifting I'll still run a fair amount, maybe do triathlons or Spartan races (I'll look good and still be fairly fast!) but I can't train because of my shins /:
I want to have one more go at it and get my final lifetime PR's across distances like the mile, 5K, half marathon, etc. before I move on to more lifting stuff for good...especially while I'm still in my mid-late 20s. It's only gonna get harder the longer I wait and this condition has already eaten away the entirety of my early 20s worth of running/training.
What do I do guys? I'm literally out of things to do at this point. This has been affecting my health since I can't run as often as I used to. My doc said an MRI isn't necessary but I might get one anyways TBH. Any help or advice would be highly appreciated now /: