Wife Mother Runner injuries Archives

How To Heal A Sprained Ankle And Not End Your Running Career

June 29, 2018

I sprained my ankle while running on May 11th. I immediately iced it and started RICE therapy. I also used a combination of frankincense, cypress, peppermint and lemongrass essential oils to help reduce the swelling. I took off several weeks from running and I saw my chiropractor a month after it happened. He said I should have seen him sooner. There are exercises he gave me which I should have started soon after to my injury to help me with my mobility.

When I first tried the exercises in his office I couldn’t believe, that even though my ankle felt ok, I really couldn’t bear weight the way I should be able to. I thought my ankle still looked a little puffy; but I thought it was my imagination. When he took a look at it he said there still was some swelling. I was surprised. I figured it was almost four weeks since it happened, I can walk on it without issues, so I was just going to give it another two weeks before I ran again.

Doctor’s orders – no running yet. I have to continue to ice and heat to get the swelling down and the blood flowing back in that area; and I was told to do the two exercises he showed me without assistance. I did them because I wanted to run again, sooner rather than later.

What Happens When You Sprain Your Ankle?

When you sprain an ankle there are nerve endings that get damaged from the stretch of the tendons. Just because you can walk again without pain or the swelling has gone down, doesn’t mean you are completely healed. My doctor explained that there are three ligaments on the outside of the ankle. When those ligaments are strained or torn, the nerve ending are also affected by it.

He had me stand on one leg and balance myself and then raise to my toes with that leg only. Then when I did that on my injured ankle, I was completely wobbly and could barely raise myself onto my toes. I was shocked at how much mobility and stability I had lost. I had to rebuild the strength in that area of my ankle. I also had to help the nerves heal so that my running gait wouldn’t be affected.

I continued the exercises for the next two weeks and also just did my Beach Body workout programs while I wasn’t running to continue my strength training. Especially for my glutes and hamstrings.

Not Running Made Me Crazy

All during the time that I couldn’t run, my mood and energy level dropped. I really missed running. I bet if I read any earlier blog posts of mine where I had an injury I had the same feeling. This time when I took the time off to heal I didn’t try to run through it like I had in the past. I really needed to NOT RUN. I had to listen to my body and my doctor. I’m glad I did.

How To Get Back Into Running After An Injury

After taking the required time to heal, doing the prescribed exercises and icing and heating my sprain, my doctor was happy with the strength I showed in my last visit a week ago. He told me I could start running again. But that didn’t mean I could get out and run like I used to.

Getting back into running after an injury requires patience and the following:

Lower your intervals to a shorter run time than prior to your injury. Instead of running 30/30 I went to 15/30
Don’t worry about your speed. Right now you have to focus on maintaining good form and you can’t get caught up in your head about how much speed you may have lost during your time off.
Don’t worry about your distance. Same concept with speed, you are going to have to build your mileage back up again. Follow the rule of 10% more each week. Anything more than that, and you are asking for trouble.
Listen to your body. If anything is starting to hurt again, STOP. Listen to your body and make adjustments accordingly.

My chiropractor told me that several people ruin their running career after an ankle sprain because they don’t give themselves sufficient time to heal. Ankles are tough. If you get a sprain it can sometimes be the end if you don’t take care of it.

I’m happy to be back out on the road again, despite the current heat wave we are experiencing. I’m going to enjoy the miles I can start accumulating and work on my goals for the upcoming months.

Injury Update – Making A New Plan

April 30, 2016

It’s been a while since I blogged and there are several reasons for that. One good reason was because I was on vacation with my family to Disney for Spring break and also to run the runDisney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge. I’ll have more on the race specifics in a future post. I have also been recovering from my recent bout with patellar tendonitis. I had been very good about resting it, icing it and doing various PT exercises to strengthen it. I did not run at all prior to the race; but wasn’t too concerned about conditioning for the race. I was able to walk around the parks at Disney with the family just fine and had my knee taped by my friend Merle while at the expo for the race.

That was great support for me while I visited the parks the two days prior to the actual races. I also took the advice of my chiropractor and purchased a knee strap for support to use when I run.

Once it was time to run the races, I felt good about the 10K. My plan was to run my intervals and see what happens. If things weren’t better, then I was going to walk the half the next day if necessary. I was running with Diana and Mandy and they were supportive of my needs. I ran the 10K with a few issues; but what I noticed with this race was that instead of doing my intervals, I kept running through them. I didn’t want to stop every 30 seconds. Part of the reason for that was because it was crowded and the second part was because I was feeling so good. I hadn’t run in three weeks and my legs felt fresh to run almost a mile without stopping for a walk break.

It’s when i stopped for the intervals that I was starting to feel the twinges. I also noticed it when I ran downhill. So I was very careful. All in all, I was very happy with my recovery and knew that I would be ok for the half marathon. I felt good the entire day after the race (despite the fatigue from being awake since 2:30 a.m.) and went to the Magic Kingdom with my family and met up with Diana and Mandy for pictures of us together for Dapper Day.

The next morning was the half marathon and I was going to take the same approach for that race. My legs were a little bit sore from running continuously but my knee felt ok. However, I had quickly gotten sick with some type of respiratory issue. I don’t know if it was allergies, or not having my oil diffuser with my in our hotel room; but I lost my voice and my lungs were very heavy. Once the race started I did ok for the first section and my knee survived it very well also; but by mile 6 I was deteriorating. I was very tired, I had trouble with my breathing and my throat and chest was burning from the illness I was fighting off.

I was not happy with my race results, and I am still processing this race mentally; but that will be left for a future blog post.

What I plan to do now that I am back home again and was able to go on a few runs with no knee issue is to put together my plan for the year going forward. I am signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon. I thought about my successes in the past and what I did to be successful with my races. The answer is to have a plan. So I went to my favorite website, www.jeffgalloway.com and printed out his marathon training plan and penciled in the dates from the Marine Corps Marathon date back. So now I have a plan. When I was successful with my races, it was because I used that plan religiously. I want to get back to that.

I am also exploring Heart Rate Training. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Another Mother Runner and Dimity and Sarah were talking about Heart Rate Training, which Dimity has been doing a lot of because she is training for an ultra. They talked about Heart Rate training having benefits of better aerobic training, reduction in the risk of injury and an increase in your speed. They offer a heart rate training plan which I am going to join and give it a fair shot in addition to my Jeff Galloway training plan.

That’s where things are as of now, I’ll dig deeper into my race recaps, training plans and Disney vacation recap as soon as I can. Stay tuned!

I’m On The Bench

April 8, 2016

Well, I haven’t run since March 30 and that feels like an eternity for me. I haven’t even substituted my runs with a walk because I am being diligent about healing my tendinitis in my knee as fast and best as I can. This has been very hard for me. I need my fresh air fix and Vitamin D exposure. But I also need to be able to run the Star Wars Dark Side Challenge a week from this weekend.

So what happens when you get tendinitis of the patella? I didn’t go to an orthopedic doctor for a prescription for PT; but my chiropractor did tell me that is what I was battling. So I have been icing my knee often. I also went to my online doctor, YouTube, to learn the proper way to tape my knee. I also experimented with taping the tendon earlier in the week to see what my options will be so I can make it through the races. I am hoping that I won’t have to walk the entire races.

I have also been using my Deep Blue essential oils to massage the tendon and doing leg lifts, squats and some mild physical therapy exercises to strengthen the quads and IT band. I plan to visit the expo prior to the races and am hoping the line for the KT tape booth won’t be too long and I can get professionally taped prior to the races. If I can’t, I feel pretty confident with the methods I tried.

Per the advice of my chiropractor, I am going for a massage today to help with my body’s recovery from all of the running that I do and have done in the past with little reprieve or recovery and pampering to help my body remove the lactic acid and loosen up the tightness.

My yoga class was cancelled last Monday because of the SNOW, yes snow in April. But I am kind of glad because I didn’t want to make any movements or do any poses that would cause strain on my knee. So as I have 7 days until these races, I am going to be very diligent to take it easy and not do anything to jeopardize my ability to run next weekend.

I will say that even though i miss my outside fix, the weather has been helping me not feel as guilty because we have been suffering through rain and snow for the the past week. Random snow showers and downpours or rain with 50 mph winds have been hammering since last week. It’s been raw and cold so it’s helping me mentally give myself the OK to stay inside and workout indoors instead with weights and my PT exercises.

First Dopey Consecutive Training Runs

September 25, 2014

This week Jeff Galloway had a 4 day consecutive training run on my schedule. I had to do a 3 mile, 4 mile, 6 mile and 20 mile run. Thankfully for me, I am off of work (between jobs) this week, so I had the time to get in these runs. I am also fortunate that my husband is home so I could do these runs early in the morning. I chose to do them early in the morning because I always feel better when I begin my day with a run. It makes me feel more energetic and I also don’t have to worry about trying to fit it in later in the day. I went out each day at around 6:40 a.m. The sun rises late now so I wait till after 6:30 to head out. The weather this week was so comfortable for running early in the day. The scenery was so beautiful as well! Here are a few pictures from my second run day (the 4 mile day).

My doggie friend who sometimes joins me for a little bit of the run. He wasn’t in the mood to run with me. He ran away instead.

The fog was slowly melting away as the sun was rising and warming the air.

I have been battling a problem with my shin due to my orthotics being 4 years old. When I first started running I thought I had severe shin splints. I stopped running for several weeks, tried calf sleeves and finally gave in and used my custom orthotics. Come to find out that was the answer to my problem. But recently that pain was coming back, so I went to my chiropractor and we decided it was time for a new pair to be made. I put a lot of miles on mine and I am hoping this will solve my problem. I also ordered new sneakers, so I am hoping I can make it all correct again. So during the week I have been careful to ice my leg often during the day. Tylenol made a big difference after my run and I wore KT tape and calf sleeves during my run. After taking Tylenol the pain was gone for several hours. I was told by my coach, Jeff Galloway, to walk all of my runs for this training assignment. I started my runs by walking to warm my body up and I would see how I felt and make my determination on whether or not I could handle the runs. Thankfully after I warmed up I was ok to run. I actually felt better the longer into my run and also when I ran longer intervals. Each day I started the run the same way, a long warm up walk and then gently ease into running. I used 30/30 intervals. After the first 3 miles the pain was pretty much gone. Seems like once the muscles warmed up the pain would go away. As the week went on I was looking forward to my morning shorter runs, but the 20 mile run was on my mind. I was beginning to dread it. I saw on the Mickey Milers page that people were talking about the latest episode from MIke and Michelle about running feeling like a job. I was looking forward to listening to that episode. I loaded it to my podcast and it was the first thing I listened to as I started my run today. I was feeling the exact same way as Michelle. I enjoy running, but preparing for Dopey was difficult for me. I could handle the short runs. I was nervous about the long run. I was mostly nervous because of my shin/arch problem. I gained confidence that I could do 4 consecutive runs with the last run being the marathon, but I am feeling scared about the Goofy portion of the Dopey Challenge. I did the 6 mile with the 20 mile run the following day and ran all 4 days. My body held up for it. So I know I can do it. During January the races will be with friends in Disney with photo ops and I won’t be running the races for time. I’ll be running them to finish and to enjoy myself. So this gives me confidence. I just need to get my leg back to normal and keep healthy for the rest of my training. For the 20 mile run I walked the first 2 miles to warm up. Then I began to add some running with 15/30 intervals. I did well for the next 8 miles. By mile 10 I didn’t feel anything with my left leg. I was also relieved that I only had 10 miles left. It was supposed to be a very rainy day (Nor’easter storm forecasted), but the rain held off for the first 7 miles into my run. When it did begin to rain it wasn’t bad. It was a gentle rain that was very peaceful. I continued with my 15/30 intervals through mile 13, then I started to walk some more. I decided to change part of my route so that my husband could meet up with me with water and pretzels. I met him at mile 15 and took a 10 minute break to have some water. I didn’t need a lot of water and fuel on this run. It wasn’t hot so I didn’t go through my fluid quickly. I also didn’t use Nuun on this run. I just used water, gummy bears and pretzels. By mile 17 I was walking a lot. Then at mile 18 I was able to put in some more running until I got to my street. I had to burn the last mile by running in my driveway and up my street a little bit so I could earn that last mile. I didn’t want to cut my run short. I am happy that I got it done. I had no expectations on the finish time that I wanted, and am feeling good. Just a little tired from being so busy all week and running 4 days in a row with a long run. In my mind I am accepting that I can do the Dopey challenge. It may not be pretty but I know that I can get it done. The key will be RESTING each day after the race and taking naps. Here are some pictures from my 6 mile run. It was another beautiful fall morning. I stopped to savor the peaceful morning and to embrace the alone time I had. How can you beat views like this to begin your day?!

Recovery Plans

November 20, 2013

I saw my chiropractor recently. That is one of the things that I do as a recovery item after a long run. I don’t go the same day, but within a few days of my long run. Doing long runs does add some additional compression to the spine so it is a good idea to get adjusted. It also makes your back stronger, ironically. While holding yourself upright for x number of miles your core is engaged and your back muscles are engaged which in turn makes you stronger. He told me he noticed some strength in my back.

Another recovery tool that I love after my runs is to have a glass of skim milk with Ovaltine! That’s my treat, but it is also recommended to drink after a long run because of the carb to protein ratio.

Lately I have been adding more anti inflammatory foods to my diet to help speed up the process. Foods like watermelon, red peppers, fish oil and green tea.

Listen to episode #108 from the Mickey Miles Podcast and you’ll learn from the runDisney nutritionist Tara Gidus what foods she recommends before a run, during a run and after a run. This was a very helpful episode because she used plain and simple foods like Greek Yogurt, an english muffin with peanut butter.

Here are other foods Tara recommends prior to, during and after your runs and races.

Prior to your Race or Long Run

Carb loading – full marathon
A few days prior to your event, be sure to do some carb loading. Be aware, you will gain weight during that time and you will feel bloated. But that is ok because your body is doing what it should and it is topping out with your glycogen stores. It is also water weight. Rice, tortillas, potatoes, multigrains and any source of carbs is good.

Race Day or Long Run Day

Breakfast 1.5 hours prior to the event you can have your cereal and milk, banana, bagel and PB, egg and toast or oatmeal. Then 30 minutes up to race start it is good to eat a banana, plain bagel, sport drink or granola bar.

Recovery

Post race meal within 30 minutes of your event the following food choices that are primarily carbs are best:

chocolate milk

banana and water

smoothie

fresh fruit plus protein powder

breakfast

granola plus water plus yogurt

Within 2 hours have protein plus carbs with a more complete meal to help your muscles recover.

What is your recovery plan?

PT evalution

August 1, 2013

I had my PT evaluation today. She did what I thought she would do, Measured my range of motion and strength. Then I sat on a heating pad for 10 minutes. Then I laid on the table and she stretched out my hamstrings. 30 seconds on each leg in 3 different positions. They are hard but good stretches. I already felt better after she did that. She also showed me some leg lift exercises. Simple little leg lifts for 5 seconds (15 times); but my leg was tired. It’s amazing how many different muscles we use when we run and if one area is weak it can have a chain reaction. After some IT exercises (that I had also been doing at home for the past month), she had me roll on the foam roller for 4 minutes and that was it for today. She didn’t use the ultrasound steroid gel. Maybe I won’t need it this time around.

I decided not to run today because in the morning my legs were still very sore even just walking around my house. No sense rushing myself into a run if I am not ready yet. This week my plan was to back off on the miles and pick them up again next week. By then I will have 3 PT sessions under my belt and should be in much better shape for a longer mileage run.

I have been searching the internet for costume ideas for Dumbo, Still getting excited, and hopeful that I will recover quickly from this event. Does anyone have any costume ideas to share? I have a lime green sparkle skirt that I think I want to use for the half marathon. I am also going to look in my daughter’s dress up box at her wings to see what I can use. I already have my idea for Minnie for the 10K. So I think I want to see what I can do for the half that has minimal impact while running a half marathon. Share your ideas!

Damn Ham

July 23, 2013

I don’t want this blog to sound like all I do is complain; but it is a journal of my running experiences and when you run, sometimes you get injured. Last summer I had an issue with my hamstring after I completed a 10 mile race on a VERY hot and humid day. My muscles cramped up in my car after the race and after several trips to the chiropractor to try to heal it that way, I ended up going to an ortho doctor and did physical therapy for a few weeks. I think it is time to call tomorrow and make the appointment to get back in to the physical therapy right away rather than drag this out and try to heal it on my own. With the Dumbo Double Dare just a little over a month away I need to get on top of this. This type of issue will benefit from the ultrasound cortisone treatments. So now that I am ramping up the miles for the D3 and then jumping into the higher miles for the marathon right after that, it would be wise for me to get treated now rather than later.

Stay tuned…

Category: injuries