The Injury: Back Story

Well I had every intention of starting this blog on a new training regime prepared to share workouts and dinner recipes. But the ankle sprain that I was waiting and re-waiting to heal and get better never quite did. So I’m afraid I will have to start this running blog in a cast, unable to run. And trust me, this is progress.

I sprained my ankle (rolled my left ankle outward and scrapped the ground with it) during a 5k, in May 2012. Yes, I am now writing this in February 2014. It has taken almost 2 years to identify the problem and determine a solution. I really don’t want a single runner out there having to go through that. So here’s to learning from someone else’s experience.

After spraining my left ankle about 1 minute into the race (and finishing it of course like a dunce), I stayed away from running about 3 weeks. I did not see a doctor. I began running with or without a brace, and upon the start of some interval training, felt my arch collapse. I ran sparingly and raced twice until August 2012. By this time, my knee was killing me, and if I ran in a way that helped my knee, my ankle was killing me. It was time to see a doctor.

I’d never gone to see a doc for a sports related injury, so I went to my General Practitioner and had them recommend someone: it was a surgeon that specialized in knee and shoulder surgery and had a background in Sports Medicine. I’ll refer to him as Dr. Knee. Dr. Knee diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis, achelies tendonitis, shin splints, and a small stress fracture in my tibia. 6 weeks off from running. Then rehab. Rehab helped a lot. Started running, and barely made it for the Army Ten Miler in late October. I did so well, not only did I finish, I averaged about 7:30min/mile pace. Overly ambitious, I ran two days afterwards and bam, pain in knee and ankle.

The weeks and months that followed were nothing but a series of cycles between being injured and running a little. I just kept getting hurt and spraining that ankle. My dad (an avid runner for over 40 years) suggested that my new hip pain and knee pain, were all derived from my ankle. I went back to see Dr. Knee, who did xrays and an MRI on my knee, only to find no issues. Then I asked him to consider my ankle as a source of the knee pain, and I had an ankle MRI end of July. Again, he said there was nothing to be found. Slightly disheartened, I began running again, slowly.

Less than a week later August 3 of 2013, I sprained my ankle for the 7th time. I stopped running and decided not to run again until I figured things out.