ankle issues

[coverallthebasses]

Has anyone had to deal with rolling/spraining/whatever an ankle during training for a race? I have really weak ankles (I had to quit high school track because of them) and I had something happen to at least one of my ankles before the 5K I ran in May and now the 10K I'm running in 2 weeks. I'm having a hard time balancing the need to keep my fitness up and not wanting to risk hurting it further. Does anyone have any ideas from previous experience with injuries during training?

Comments

[lyras]

I'm in no way an expert, but it sounds as if you could cross-train to keep your fitness up. Swimming might be the best option, since it wouldn't put any more strain on your ankles and is a great all-round workout.

Good luck! I don't often get injured, but my problem tends to be getting ill during training, and it sucks, so you have my sympathy.

(Also, I'm assuming that your trainers/sneakers are suitable for your feet, but if you're not sure, you might want to go to somewhere like The Athelete's Foot where they'll analyse your gait and suggest the best kind of shoe for you.)

[coverallthebasses]

Thanks for your reply! I'm thinking I'm going to try and get out on my bike this week as well but what's really concerning me is that I actually have yet to run a full 10k and would like to have that under my belt by the end of this week. So I'm torn between wanting to push myself so I can at least do it once this week, and wanting to take it easy to make sure nothing bad happens. That's unfortunate about your tendency to get ill; I hate running with a cold/worse!

[gnomad]

Might I suggest yoga for a low impact way to strengthen ankles without actually doing specific ankle exercises? I used to have really weak ankles too (like I would roll them while walking in supportive flats...) and yoga has really helped strengthen them up and make them more flexible. It is slow work--I doubt it would give you any benefit in the 2 weeks before your race--but it really does help quite a bit in the long run.