Sore ankles

skippygirlsmom

This question is about my about to turn 15 year old daughter. She has run track and cross country for the past few years. She just returned to running distance about 2 weeks ago after soccer season ended. This past weekend we ran an 8K and she did very well at 37:31 so she has a good little pace going for herself. The thing she complained about after the race were her ankles were sore. The soreness latest a few days. She did lots of stretching with and without a band and iced them after the race. She has been fitted for her shoes so I'm confident she's in the right shoes. This is the first time she's had this issue, however, we do plan to get her a new pair this weekend.

From things I'm reading online, I'm leaning towards her keeping her feet too stiff while running. She said she thought that might be it, especially since she hasn't done any distance running since soccer started in November. Anyone else have an idea why this would be. I tried to explain to her if she feels like she is holding them stiff while running to to kinda roll off the front of her foot more to make them flex. Needless to say trying to explain this to her while the two of us were running just lead to us laughing.

Don't know if it matters, but before the race she ran about 5 times 4 - 5 miles each run.

Any thoughts? thanks!

FromHereOnOut

At 15, her shoe size might still be changing often, so it's good you are staying on top of that. I was wearing the wrong shoe size and it nearly destroyed my Achilles because my feet were bowed inside the shoe, even though I couldn't tell until after I'd worn the proper size for awhile and then tried the old ones again and could feel how bowed my feet were and how I had to clop instead of flexing, causing my calves to tense continuously. Can't say enough for checking shoe size often, no matter your age (I'm middle aged and I guess pregnancies and weight gain changed my shoe size and I've had to get rid of an entire closet of shoes).

I sure others will have other suggestions too. Good luck to you both. :-)

kristinegift

It may be the shoes, so it's good you're getting her fitted this weekend.

It may also have just been the effort. She was going pretty hard (awesome pace, btw!) and if she's only been at it again for a couple weeks, her ankles may be grumpy from that.

litsy3

It also sounds like quite a long race for a girl that young who's still growing - I don't know much about running as a teenager because I didn't, but I do know the kids at my club tend to race track and short cross country races (3 or 4k) and don't do many longer runs, only building up to that when they're older. Does she have a coach at school or at her athletics club who can advise you?

skippygirlsmom

Thanks everyone. I'll mention it to them at the running store and let them toss her on the treadmill to take a look too. @litsy3 she's been running cross country with school for the past 2 years and track for 3 years. During the season it's nothing for her to run 5-8 miles a couple days during practice. Races are 5K for Varsity.

I started to think about her shoes and realized she got them the middle of the summer last year so she's definitely due for a new pair, even though she really hasn't run in them since the beginning of November. She did mention the other day she needed new insoles because they felt like these were "flat". We'll start there and see how she feels, the more I think about it the more I'm learning towards the shoes. I'll see the high school trainer later this week at a meeting so I'll mention it to him too.

Thanks again, it's nice to have people to run these questions by...no pun intended

briebee7

It might be her overall mechanics/form. In HS I always had a bit of a hard time transitioning from soccer to track/XC. Yes you run a lot in soccer however the type of running is different than when you are just purely running. There is good chance that she just needs some time to get her running form back.

5512bf

She could just have weak stabilizing muscles around her ankles. My ankles use to hurt bad after longer run from all the injuries and hardware holding them together. My trainer recommended a little different stabilizing shoe and to workout on a bosu ball. A few months of strengthening that area most of the ankle soreness was cured. Still will be sore after a really fast long hard run (10+), but all the easy miles upto 20 were no problem.

skippygirlsmom

Thanks @briebee7 and @5512bf I agree on the transition from soccer to pure running. She never had the problem in the past, but I'll ask the trainer about it.

skippygirlsmom

Thanks for the advice, she got some new running shoes yesterday a whole size larger and we ran this morning and no pain. Until she put on the new pair she said she didn't realize the old pair was too small.

kozinskey

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, she got some new running shoes yesterday a whole size larger and we ran this morning and no pain. Until she put on the new pair she said she didn't realize the old pair was too small.

My first impulse is to blame the shoes. Has she had a real fitting from a specialty running store lately? I had lots of ankle issues back when I was in stability shoes that I'd gotten fitted for by our local running store, and it turns out I'd just had a bad fitting and all I needed was a neutral shoe to fix those problems. If your daughter's changing shoe sizes a lot I might guess her stride & form are changing a lot too, so current fittings are probably a good idea.

jdelot

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, she got some new running shoes yesterday a whole size larger and we ran this morning and no pain. Until she put on the new pair she said she didn't realize the old pair was too small.

I work part time at a running shoe store and we see people all the time that are in shoes that are too small.
Was she overpronating? What shoe did she end-up with?