Training sidetracked by ankle "splints"

Michael and I were supposed to run 8 miles yesterday. We chose to go on the Panther Hollow Trail and then the Eliza Furnace Trail. Here's a link to the trail map: http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/trails/images/trail_brochure_map.pdf. Panther Hollow Trail runs next to Schenly Park and then runs into the Eliza Furnace Trail which follows along the river towards downtown. The Eliza Furnace Trail is also called the Jail Trail because it runs past the Allegheny County Prison. When we started jogging I noticed a small discomfort in my right ankle. I decided to ignore it (bad idea!). By the time we had finished 4 miles I couldn't jog anymore and we ended up taking a cab back to where we had parked the car. To make matters worse, I left my water belt in the taxi! Sigh ...

I occasionally have a problem with what I call ankle splints. They are like shin splints, but I feel them on the lower portion of my shin - closer to my ankle. I'll take two days off and then try to do just a couple of miles on Tuesday and Thursday. I think that the problem is a combination of overtraining during our week day short runs and running too much on the treadmill and not enough outside. I think I'm going to limit my short runs to 3 miles twice a week from now on. That worked well for our last half marathon. And now that the weather and light are better, I can do most of my run/walking outside.