Sore ankle - what do I do?

[Wowzers]

I started c25k in September and got to week 7 run 2 by the end of November but then I’ve had a few bad colds/flu that set me back & after repeating many runs I just completed week 6 run 3 again on Friday. However half way through that run my ankle started to feel sore. I completed the run & it wasn’t too painful. I thought with 2 days rest I’d be fine to run again today but when I got up my ankle was sore again (but not very painful) so I didn’t go as I don’t want to make it worse. Strangely my ankle hadn’t been too bad at all over the weekend but is worse today. Is there anything I can do to help it get better as I’m guessing running at the moment is a bad idea? My knees are a bit dodgy too - they make crunching & clicking noises when I walk upstairs (and have done for a long time) but don’t usually hurt at all. They have been slightly sore on rest days recently so any advice about them would be great too! I always do the 5 minute warm up walk before & after running & I do extra stretches when I get back. I’m just so frustrated that I’m so near to the end yet so far & potentially going to go backwards again due to not running. Any advice is very welcome.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

First question is what are you wearing on your feet?

Proper running shoes fitted after a gait analysis done at a specialist running shop will hugely reduce the impact of running and the consequences.

This nhs.uk/conditions/sports-in... is the starting point for self treatment.

I am in exactly the same situation as you at the moment, having had to cut short my run yesterday. I have taken ibuprofen and am resting until the pain subsides.

I might well get on my bike to keep the joint mobile, build muscle and improve blood flow without any impact stresses.

Take care.

[Wowzers Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

I have proper running shoes that I bought from a running shop after having gait analysis done - they do have extra support in them. I think I got them when I started week 4 back in October so they should be fine. The pain isn’t so bad that I need to take pain killers - it’s more of an ache at the moment - but I can’t take ibuprofen anyway as I have Gastritis (although trying my best to get that fixed - it’s much better than it was!). I do have an old bike I could go out on to keep my fitness up while my ankle recovers so maybe I will give that a try. Thank you for the link - I will take a look. Your help is much appreciated.

[DiscoRunner Graduate]

Couple of thoughts - are your running shoes wearing out? Maybe you need extra foot support? And is the pain muscular? Sometimes the muscle pain of over exercising can hit a couple of days after, rather than the next day (there was an article on the Guardian site about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness DOMS), have a look at that and see if it chimes?

You could also look on here about shin splints - is it that?

This week I'm going to a proper running shop to have my running looked at and to talk about protecting my knees etc. I'm 53 and I'm trying to get fit without injury - I also run very slowly - my brisk walking is much faster than my running. I'm a fairly recent graduate and so doing my consolidation runs (for me this will be about 6 weeks of the final run), and I'm not really looking at addressing my pace until after this. I doubt very much I'm actually running 5k over my 30 mins - for me it's about the duration not the speed.

Hope you feel better soon.

[Wowzers Graduate in reply to DiscoRunner]

I do have proper running shoes that were new in October from a running shop after having gait analysis done so that shouldn’t be the problem. I’m not sure if the pain is muscular or not - it hurts to the rear side of my inner ankle bone & it is sore to touch the rear side of the bone & the area around it if I press hard. So I wouldn’t think it is muscular unless a muscle is attached there - but I don’t know much about muscles! I don’t think it is DOMS as I’ve had that a lot after other exercise like Zumba in the past - 2 days after was worse than 1 day after! I don’t think it’s shin splints either as the pain isn’t on my shins at the front of my leg - it’s at the side nearer the back. So it’s a bit of a mystery at the moment! Thank you for your help though - it’s much appreciated and it’s useful to rule out things it could be that I hadn’t thought about.

[DiscoRunner Graduate in reply to Wowzers]

I'd be tempted to go and see the Doc, or a sports physio. I don't know enough but it could be a tendon, but sounds like you're right not to ignore it as it is painful to touch. Hope you get it sorted soon.