Cross country season in Alaska is a short, intense window and shin splints are one of the fastest ways to derail it before it really gets going. Every year, we see high school runners come into our clinic in August or September hobbling on shin pain that started building in June. The frustrating part? Most of it was preventable.
If you’re a runner, a coach, or a parent of a high schooler who laces up every fall, this blog is for you. We’re going to walk you through exactly what you can do right now (starting in June!) to arrive at the first practice healthy, strong, and ready to race.
First, a Quick Refresher on What’s Actually Happening
Before we talk prevention, it helps to understand the “why.” Shin splints (technically called tibial bone stress syndrome) happen when the muscles pulling on the shin bone create more stress than the bone can handle at that moment, leading to inflammation and pain along the inside of the lower leg. If ignored, it can lead to an even bigger issue… a stress fracture.
The single biggest culprit? Too much, too soon. It’s not weak ankles. It’s not bad shoes. It’s a rapid spike in training load on a body that wasn’t quite ready for it.
We go deeper on the mechanics and a hidden factor called RED-S that athletes and parents often don’t know about, in our earlier blog: Are Shin Splints Something to Worry About? It’s worth a read.
Why June Matters More Than You Think
Here’s the thing about bones: they adapt more slowly than muscles do. Your lungs and legs might feel fine ramping up mileage fast, but your tibia is quietly accumulating stress it hasn’t had time to recover from. By the time pain shows up, the bone has been under stress for weeks.
June is your opportunity to get ahead of that curve. Not by training harder, but by training smarter. Think of the next 8–10 weeks as building the foundation that your season will run on.
The June–August Prevention Game Plan
1. Keep Some Running Shape Year-Round (Or Get Back to It Gradually)
This is the most important one. The athletes most likely to get shin splints are those who go from zero to sixty when the season hits. That can look like zero miles in spring, then suddenly 25–30 miles a week in August.
If you’ve been off since spring track, don’t panic. But do start now. Even 15–20 minutes of light impact three to four times a week in June gives your bones the signal they need to start adapting. Increase your running volume gradually — no more than about 10% per week is a good general guide.
Coaches: If you’re building summer training plans, account for the wide range of summer mileage your athletes are coming in with. A fitness check-in in the first week of practice is eye-opening.
Parents: If your runner has been mostly sedentary since May, a little nudge (and maybe some company on a walk-jog) goes a long way.
2. Add Strength Training — Especially for Calves and Hips
Stretching will not fix shin splints. We know that’s not what the internet says, but we’ll say it anyway: you cannot stretch your way to healthy shins. What does work is building the muscular strength and bone resilience to handle training loads.
Key exercises to incorporate 2–3x per week:
Calf raises (with a slow lowering phase)
Stand on a step, rise up on both feet, then lower slowly on one foot. Work up to 3 sets of 15. This is one of the single best exercises for tibial bone stress prevention. You can eventually progress to adding weight and walking on toes with bent knees in a half squat for a real challenge.
Hip strengthening (glutes and hip abductors)
Weak hips lead to excessive lower leg stress. Side-lying clamshells, lateral band walks, and single-leg deadlifts are all great options. Yes, even for shin pain! The whole chain matters. You can even sneak in some core work by doing a side plank with a clam shell and a band above the knees.
Single-leg balance and proprioception
Stand on one leg with a slight knee bend for 30–60 seconds. Add challenge by closing your eyes or standing on a folded towel. This trains the small stabilizing muscles that absorb impact during running. Progress to single leg bounds for an elevated challenge.
Jump Rope
If every cross-country runner carved out time every day for a few minutes of jump roping, we’d probably see a lot less injuries in teen athletes. Jumping rope trains your calves, ankles, and feet to absorb and generate force rapidly. This is exactly what happens thousands of times during a cross-country race. It builds the kind of low-level, rhythmic load tolerance that makes your bones and connective tissue more resilient over time. It also reinforces good foot strike mechanics and improves the spring and stiffness in your lower leg that makes running more efficient.
3. Build the Base on Soft Surfaces When You Can
Alaska summers are genuinely great for this. Trails, dirt paths, and grass are all great options. Running on softer surfaces reduces the impact load on your tibias compared to pavement or track. Mixing surfaces through the summer lets your bones adapt progressively without hammering them on hard ground every single day.
That said, don’t avoid roads entirely if you are racing on them. Your body needs to be prepared.
4. Eat to Train, Not Just to Run
This one doesn’t get enough attention in high school running. Bones remodel and strengthen during recovery, and that process requires energy. Specifically, adequate calories and sufficient calcium and Vitamin D.
Runners (especially teenage girls, but not exclusively) are at risk for something called Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), a state where the body isn’t taking in enough fuel to cover both training demands and normal biological functions. One of the first things to suffer is bone health, which is exactly where shin splints and stress fractures come from.
- For athletes: Don’t under-eat during summer training, even casual summer training. Fueling well isn’t optional, it’s part of the training plan.
- For parents: Keep easy, nutritious food available. If your runner is losing weight through the summer while training more, that’s worth paying attention to.
- For coaches: The conversation about fueling is one of the most important ones you can have with your team. Normalize eating enough. Watch for signs of athletes restricting intake.
Want to go deeper on RED-S? We cover it in detail in our blog: Are Shin Splints Something to Worry About?
5. Get Enough Sleep
We know telling a teenager to sleep more feels like asking the sun not to rise. But sleep is when bones actually repair and adapt. Chronic sleep deprivation measurably increases injury risk.
Aim for 8–9 hours during heavy training periods. Summer before XC is a heavy training period, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet.
6. Sort Out Your Footwear Before August
Don’t wait until the first week of practice to discover your shoes are shot. Running shoes generally last 300–500 miles, and after a winter and spring, your previous XC shoes may be worn down in ways that aren’t obvious from the outside.
Head into a running specialty store to have someone check your shoes. Like our friends over at Skinny Raven Sports in Anchorage or Aktive Soles in the Valley. Footwear that’s right for your foot type and gait can meaningfully reduce lower leg stress. If you’ve had shin splints before, this is worth a closer look. A gait analysis and running shoe assessment from a sports PT can tell you a lot.
Warning Signs to Watch For
Even with the best prevention plan, early symptoms can show up. Catching them early makes all the difference.
Watch for:
- Aching or tenderness along the inside edge of your lower leg that gets worse with running
- Pain that’s worse at the start of a run but fades, then returns afterward
- Soreness that’s still present the morning after a hard day
- A specific spot on the shin that’s very tender to touch (this one warrants a PT visit sooner rather than later)
The biggest mistake athletes make is pushing through early warning signs until they’re in full-blown shin splints — or worse, a stress fracture. If symptoms show up, back off the mileage immediately and get it checked out.
A Note for Coaches
You are in one of the most powerful positions to prevent these injuries. A few things that make a big difference:
Setting up a realistic summer mileage plan that accounts for varying fitness levels coming into fall is huge. Communicating with athletes about what “gradual build” actually means (with specific numbers) removes the guesswork.
Normalize rest days. Athletes who fear that a rest day means falling behind are more likely to overtrain. Build recovery days and easy weeks into your schedule explicitly.
Ask about nutrition, sleep, and how bodies are feeling — not just pace and mileage. The athletes most at risk are often the ones quietly grinding through early pain and under-eating.
The Bottom Line
Shin splints aren’t bad luck, they’re a signal. And the time to respond to that signal is before the pain starts, not after.
June, July, and early August are a gift. Use them to build gradually, eat well, sleep enough, and strengthen the foundation that will carry your runners through a full, healthy season.
If you’ve had shin splints in the past, or you want a proactive screening before the season kicks off, we’d love to help. Our sports PTs work with high school cross country runners every year, and we specialize in keeping athletes on the course, not on the sidelines.
Ready to get ahead of it?
Schedule a Free Discovery Session or ask a PT a question before you commit. We’re here for it.
Note: The information in this blog is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for individual medical or physical therapy advice. If you’re experiencing pain, please reach out to a qualified healthcare provider.
Runners’ Edge Alaska – Sports Physical Therapy & Performance in Anchorage, AK
