I'm going to be a senior this coming XC season, so I want to do everything I can to decrease my 5k time. However, every summer I manage to injure my shins pretty badly.
This summer, I tried to preclude injury by icing 1-3x a day, foam rolling occasionally, and some hip yoga and a decent amount of stretching. I also don't live to close to any trails, so I have done a lot of my workouts on the road because I heard its better than sidewalk. I try to run on flat, clear sidewalk grass whenever available though.
Anyway, I've managed to complete 45 mpw last week and it felt like I was controlling my shin problem pretty nicely. Now I'm trying to increase this week to 50 mpw and also add a double with a 4-mile tempo run in the morning for speed endurance and a 4-mile recovery run later. This is the first time I've done any speed work this summer. This is also the first time I've done a double.
The tempo run felt great, but the recovery run felt like hell. Legs were tired, shins started to actually really hurt like they did last year when I had splints.
I'm scared that I will be or am already injured beyond repair, and that I won't reach my mileage goal of 60mpw in the next 3 weeks. I know they sound contradictory, but what can I do to:
1) recover from shin splints?
2) reach 55-60 mpw by 3 weeks time?
Thanks a lot!
P.S. That workout was yesterday and I haven't run today fearing that I will do more damage.