About a week and a half ago, I was at the gym for one of my sessions with my personal trainer. We have been working on some high intensity (thermodymology) type training and on this day, things went differently than I’d planned.
So, the idea was to sprint, and do some “high step” hurdling over some obstacles. On my very first pass, my right foot cam down – full force and full speed – on the side of the obstacle and I turned my ankle but good. Yeah, it hurt. My trainer got me an ice pack right away, but the damage was done.
That day, I spent the rest of it icing the foot and ankle and staying off it. In fact, I had it elevated through most of the day. And took some ibuprofen. With links like full spectrum click here, the pain in this injury can be reduced further.
The next morning, I looked and although it was discolored and slightly swollen, it was not as bad as I thought. I iced it for a while that morning then wrapped it in an ace bandage. I took the day off and did very little.
The rest of the week I made sure it was wrapped, but after three days it was feeling much better. On the forth day I went back to the gym and we worked the upper body and did some core and strength exercises. No running or hurdling 🙂
Fast forward to this morning…
I decided to give it a good test and went for a run. I did 4 miles, and to be honest, I feel great. My ankle is still a bit sore, but it really only hurts if I turn the foot at the ankle – you know, turn it or rotate it. When I run my foot comes straight down so there’s no pain. Averaged under 10 min/mile – not too bad for me.
If you sprain your ankle, I recommend you see your doctor. But some simple things you can do to help yourself include:
- Immobilize the ankle right away
- Rest. If you can, take a few days off. Go easy on the ankle.
- Ice it up – several times a day for no more than 15 minutes at a time.
- Wrap it up. Use an ace bandage. Not too tight – don’t want to reduce your circulation.
- Elevate it where you can.
- And again – see your doctor.
Injuries like a sprained ankle are easy to dismiss as “no big deal”. After all, who hasn’t sprained an ankle in their lifetime. But the fact of the matter is, if you don’t take care of it, you can make it worse – or at the very least, slow down your healing time. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t do something physical for an extended period, I get antsy. So while healing, do something that will not include your area of injury.
It feels good to be running again, though I won’t overdo it. I have a ten mile run coming in October (The Army Ten Miler) and I want to be ready for that.
As for today, here are my run stats:
4.0 miles, 38 min, 29 sec (9:36 min/mile)
Split times: Mile 1 – 9:43 | Mile 2 – 9:43 | Mile 3 – 10:00 | Mile 4 – 8:56
Yeah, turned it on for that last mile.
Remember – stay moving. Stay healthy!
Oh – final note. Weight still coming off. Weighed in at 187 this morning. Very happy 🙂
