Not sure if anyone can help with this, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

I'm about halfway through the beginner's half-marathon training on this site. I've been doing fine with it when this week, totally out of the blue, I get hit with what I at first assumed was a major shin splint in the left leg. I have never previously had issues with shin splints and I have only around 200 miles on my shoes so I was surprised. I have recently switched to running outside more (rather than on the treadmill) so that might have something to do with it. I bought a new pair of shoes (both previous pair and this pair were bought from a running store) and tried a run on those but the pain seemed to stay the same. It doesn't hurt when I'm running, just when I'm not running. It also tends to be fine in the morning and then get worse as I go throughout the day.

I've not run for the past few days (which has been even more painful than the leg) and it seems to be clearing up a bit. Now that the whole lower leg doesn't hurt, however, it seems clearer that the pain is in the lower knee. So now I'm wondering if it's a knee problem instead of a shin splint. I have had some knee pain sort of behind the left knee cap (back of leg) pretty consistently so that makes more sense to me (less out of the blue).

What I'm wondering is, does it make a difference really if it's knee pain or a shin splint? Should I continue running (I've seen other threads suggesting running through shin splints is the thing to do? I would be happy to go to the med sports center but don't want to go if this is a typical thing all runners should expect.

Any advice? I want to get back out there already!