We have a female sophomore athlete who is a full-time competitive swimmer but wanted to get involved in a school-based sport this year. She came out for XC in the fall, and we had her run two practices a week (all effectively as doubles with swimming) plus the weekend race. She was our #2 in a competitive-for-our-level team.
She didn't run between November 14 and March 1. When she came back for track, her engine was still really developed due to the swimming, and she was able to race well in her opener, but her legs are still getting used to the impact of running again. She was hurting after her first race on Saturday, and we had to shut down her planned workout today with significant pain in the warmup. According to the athlete, the pain feels more bone-related than tissue-related, radiating from the back of the ankle and a little way up the shin on the interior side.
She was really discouraged to miss the workout as she already feels like she needs to make up for lost time. I'm preaching patience and have no problem missing training to promote health. But I'm unsure how to proceed. How can we help her strengthen her lower legs to be more resilient for running when low-volume running is already creating setbacks?
For the moment, I advised eccentric heel drops and ankle-strengthening exercises. But I wanted to reach out and see if anyone had worked with a similar athlete or faced a similar issue before. Any advice?