First sprained ankle, help

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I second the RICE, at least for the first couple of days. If you want to get some running in, head to the pool and do some aqua jogging. I had a stress fracture on a run up to a marathon, and spen about 50% of my training jogging in a pool. You can get quite a workout.

Chris

I'll third the RICE, and add ibuprofen if it helps you feel better. As for training, I'd only run on it if it doesn't hurt much running in an ACE. Otherwise aqua jogging is great. Swimming might be painful since your ankle flops alot kicking-you could just use a pull buoy.

Once it's feeling better you should do ankle strenghthening exercises, because sprained ankles are prone to recur-the simplest and most effective that I've used is to stand on a stair with your heels over the edge, drop your heels down, go up onto your toes, and keep repeating for 20 or so reps. You can hold hand weights if it seems too easy.

If it is really, really painful and hard to walk on, and very bruised and swollen, you might have an avulsion fracture, where the tendon pulls a tiny chip of bone off. These are treated like a bad sprain; for either one we'll sometimes put people on crutches while they heal. Sprains are sometimes worse than breaks in how painful they are and how long they take to heal.

I agree with the pool running, while recovering from ankle reconstruction surgery i did some pool running as well. Word to the wise, make sure and use your stabilizers(Abs and such) keep proper alignment, and use your arms just as you would while running outdoors, if not you could cause other issues. If running in a current, keep it low for the first few times i.e. less than 3 miles an hour so you can do the above.