We're learning as we go, but I wanted to utilize the experience of this community.
My daughter just finished her first 12 months in a competitive High School program. She progressed from 8 to 32-42 miles and 6:30/14/24 to 5:47/12:15/20:17.
She hasn't had any serious pains or injuries that kept her from running weekly or racing. She substituted spinning 1-2 workouts a week when pains flare up and pulling back 1-2 miles a day.
Pains come and go sore shins and starting inside ankle going up leg, she says pretty deep.
I believe much of her pains are just standard training feelings. I've run 40 years and I don't think there has ever been a week where I was 100% not feeling a single soreness or nerve, I've also never had a week where I couldn't run through it. I think that's pretty standard from running and she really hasn't embraced that mentally yet. She also has no grit or pain tolerance yet, she's still a sweet little girl with no competitive drive. :)
She has experimented with shoes all year, even when finding one she likes, she always wants to experiment with another one. In her mind all pain problems are related to the shoes and not how she's training. 6 weeks ago she started trying the Brooks Ghost at the same time coach pushed her to stay with the varsity pack as long as she could. That bumped her average maintenance pace from 8:10 to under 7:30. I think that has had more to do with it than the shoes.
That said, I want to discus shoes. I have always associated more cushioning in a shoe with less injury and pains. The local running shoe company put a thought in my head that I want to confirm here, can a heavy cushioned shoe actually cause pains as your foot moves around more? At her improving speed does she actually need to train in something with less cushioning and foot movement?
I can't remember all the shoes she has gone through this year, but...
-started last year with a model of Hoka's miles 10-25/week no problems.
-hard threshold pavement runs on Brooks Hyperion Elite 2 no problems.
-although Hoka's fine, she wanted to try the Saucony Ride 15 with 25-30/week no problems.
-this spring tried another set of Hoka's they were out of model before, we returned them in a week as she started pains.
-6 weeks ago went with the Brooks Ghosts and that's when she has had more consistent problems, but that's also the period her maintenance run pace has dropped.
I just bought her a new set of the Saucony Ride 15's, so here in a few weeks we'll know the answer if her running or the shoes causing the pains. ;)
Any input appreciated, thanks!