Ankle fatigue

Hey heartopener!

Was just at a Pasadena Marathon Founder's Club workout/breakfast/seminars this morning. During one of the seminars, a physcial therapist was describing three common injuries to the foot and ankle. He mentioned that an ankle injury is very common for long distance runners.

As I recall from the presentation, the injury can be a simple misstep or "tweaking" of the ankle....spraining in some form or fashion one of three major ligaments. Swelling is common whether visiable to the eye or not. Rest is required. What the phyicial therapist mentioned was that in many instances, people don't let the ankle or injuries heal. It can take several months. On repetitive injuries, strengthening the ankle isn't enough. Physical therapy may be required.

May consider getting a physical therapist's opinion. Check around at your local running store. They may know a good PT!

Hi Heartopener, I've been dealing with right ankle trouble on and off for the past year and a half when I started running more often and longer distances. I found that a new pair of shoes with really good cushion in them helps, but it wasn't the total solution for me. I was a bit overweight when I started training - about 10-15 pounds; dropping some weight helped (even though running is one of the best ways for me to do that); biking 50 mile rides seemed to help me drop some weight; about 5 pounds per ride for a while of which 2-3 would stay off. So after a few months I dropped about 10 pounds. This helped a lot. But it still wasn't enough. Resting for a week or two helped also. But I would pretty much have to take months off for all the clicking to go away - clicking and pain which usually starts during the run. So I tried some inserts I got at REI. They helped a lot. They raised my heel up significantly and changed my stride - putting less pressure/pounding on the ankle. I use them all the time now. They're about $40 bucks but worth it. I also use some pretty fluffy and thick white tube socks for more cushioning. I also found that running faster helped me; it changes my stride to where I run more on the ball and front of the foot then on the back heel. It takes a little practice, and I had to change my distance for a while but it definitely made a difference for me. I ice my knee and ankles occasionally too, but I still get clicking a fair amount when I'm not running. But ankle pain hasn't been too much of an issue for me for a while - though I'm always on the lookout.
So new cushiony shoes, dropping a few pounds, rest, shoe inserts, cushiony socks, and maybe speeding up some to change stride might help. Best of luck.

I'm not a doctor so can't give you really specific feedback, but I did have some ankle issues as well. Things that I figured out:
1) I needed motion control shoes
2) I needed to make sure my toes were landing in-line when they landed, rather than pointing out a bit
3) I found out that I was pointing my toes outwards in the "recovery" part of the running stride, i.e. when the foot is off the ground and my knee was bent 90 degrees, foot behind my body.
4) I read ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer and changed my form to take shorter, faster strides, which reduced the pounding on all of my joints
and finally
5) I actually think one of the biggest contributors to my ankle pains was not having my cleats aligned properly on my bike shoes. The repetitive motion on the bike put strain on my ankles, which carried over into my running. Fixing that helped at least as much as anything I did with/about my running. I actually put some shims between the cleat and the shoe that changed the angle there, I can get you the name of the product if you think that might be part of your problem, I'm drawing a blank right now.

-Matt

I am interested in the name of those shim products. I have ankle pain when I ride, though it is a bit different than when I run. I'm seeing a podiatrist who is supposed to know his running business on Friday, so perhaps I'll get some help there.

Thanks for your input, very helpful!

The name of the product is LeMond LeWedge. You can google it for a bunch of people smarter than me with their thoughts and comments. You get 6 or 8 in a package, so you can adjust the angle of each foot. I think I have 1 wedge on one shoe and 2 or 3 on the other. Good luck.
-Matt

Thanks so much, Matt!