I’m getting shin splints. What workouts can I do?

Question: I recently upped my training for a half-marathon in the spring, and I’ve started to get shin splints. I’ve been stretching and swimming. Are there other workouts that won’t derail my plans?

Answer: There are two issues you need to deal with: maintaining fitness and healing your injury. There’s a risk that if left untreated, your shin splints could worsen into a more severe problem such as a stress fracture, which will result in even more time off and a complete loss of the end-goal race. You’ve started doing the right thing by cross-training; you might want to add in icing and take a mild anti-inflammatory as well.