Our customers very often are suffering from a variety of 'issues' running related that they share with us when we fit them for shoes at Fleet Feet. The two most common are heel/arch pain, which very often is plantar faciitis, and shin splints.

Shin splints or medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) refers to pain along or just behind the tibia (shinbone), the large bone in the front of the lower leg. Many times, the cause is from pronation. The most common causes from runners is, going to far too soon, too fast too soon, or a combination of both. The following link will give you more detailed info and what you can do to prevent shin splints.

Sometimes, sore shins arent shin spints at all but more serius issues as the article below points out. When in doubt, or if the pain becomes severe, consult your physician.

2 Pains in Your Shin That Might Not Be Shin Splints

By Marlene Cimons

Shin pain doesn't always mean you have shin splints. It might be a sign of some other problem. Following are two conditions that are sometimes mistakenly diagnosed as shin splints.

Compartment Syndrome

Pain on the anterior (outside) part of the lower leg may be compartment syndrome a swelling of muscles within a closed compartment, which creates pressure. To diagnose this condition, special techniques are used to measure the amount of pressure.

"With compartment syndrome, the blood supply can be compromised, and muscle injury and pain may occur," says podiatrist Stephen Pribut, D.P.M., of Washington, D.C. Sometimes surgical "decompression" is required.

So how do you distinguish compartment syndrome from shin splints?
"Symptoms of compartment syndrome include leg pain, unusual nerve sensations and, later, muscle weakness," Pribut says.

Stress Fracture

Pain in the lower leg could also be a stress fracture (an incomplete crack in the bone), which is a far more serious injury than shin splints. A bone scan is the definitive tool for diagnosing a stress fracture. However, there are clues you can look for that will signal whether or not you should get a bone scan.

Press your fingertips along your shin, and if you can find a definite spot of sharp pain, it's a sign of a stress fracture; the pain of shin splints is more generalized.

"Usually stress fractures feel better in the morning because you've rested the bone all night," says Letha Griffin, M.D., an Atlanta orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine. "Shin splints are worse in the morning because the soft tissue tightens overnight you get out of bed, and you can hardly walk."

"Shin splints will be most painful if you forcibly try to lift your foot up at the ankle," says Sheldon Laps, D.P.M., a podiatrist in the Washington, D.C., area. "If you flex your foot and it hurts, it's probably shin splints."

Also, a horizontal rather than vertical line of tenderness across the bone is typical of a stress fracture, Pribut says.