Advice on ankle injury needed, and new member hello

Jomoli

Hey everyone - just wanted to introduce myself. I have been on MFP for about a month now, but lost weight previously on Weight Watchers. I still have about 20 pounds to go but feeling great...except for a stupid ankle injury that won't go away (more about that later). I am a working mom of a 2 1/2 year old.

I live in Arizona and run dirt roads and trails. My favorite runs are rough, rocky, steep single track, but I enjoy any run. I also moutain bike regularly. My current runs vary from 3 miles to 10 miles, averaging about 5 miles or so. However, I have a problem...(now about the ankle). I sprained my ankle badly last July trail running (rolled on a rock) and it is still bothering me. I laid off running for a while, and slowly started adding miles back in. The injury turned into tendonitis, but seemed to be getting better. Within the last couple months I finally started adding more miles and did a 10 mile dirt road run 2 weeks ago and 7 mile single track trail last Saturday. And now my ankle is hurting again (ran 3 miles last night and was limping pretty good at the end)! I am so sad....I was feeling good and strong and excited about adding on the miles.

So, this post is 2-fold. I wanted to introduce myself and would love if some of you want to friend me. I would love the support and woudl be happy to give you support too. Also, I am looking for advice with the ankle. I know I probably need to just stop running for a while...

trlrnrgrl

Hi! Welcome! I've also been on MFP for about a month or two and also have a toddler - he'll turn 3 in April. I work a few hours a week at a non-profit, but mostly stay at home with our son right now. I'm a couple of states away from you in Texas, but also love running rocky single track trails. I live in central Texas, where it's pretty rocky, so that works out well for me!

I'm sorry to hear about your ankle - that is incredibly frustrating! It sounds like you did everything right by taking time off to let it heal and then started back slowly. I know exactly how that feels, too, to get a good momentum going in your training only to have it get interrupted by an old injury. I have the same thing going on with my lower back (a bulging disc). I don't know - maybe you just pushed it a tad too much, so maybe just taking it easy for the next few days or a week or two will be all it needs?

I love knowing other women who love to get out there on the trails! What got you into trail running initially?

Jomoli

You are probably right about pushing a little too much. As far as trail running, I have always run as long as I can remember (started in about Jr. High age) for fitness. I have never been a competitive runner, just have done it for fitness. I have always enjoyed hiking as well, and it was in my teens that I started combining the two. It probably only has been in the last 6 years that my running switched from predominantly road to predominantly trails. I moved to AZ 6 years ago and where I live there is a lot of single track trails available with so many combinations of loops and different routes. I prefer to run trails and moving to AZ made it much more available, which also made me better at running trails (my road running used to be on fairly flat roads so it took some adjustment to be able to run up and down steep trail sections, but I like it better that way now). That's too bad about your back. It seems like everyone 30 yrs. an older have something wrong periodically, but they push on despite the pain and discomfort and I am impressed with that.

trlrnrgrl

That's so awesome that you have a bunch of great trails nearby. Arizona seems like a great state - every once in a while I bug my hubby to move there or New Mexico. Texas has some good places to run, just not very many places. There is very little public land in Texas; what we do have is nice, but we just don't have much. Despite that, though, we have a pretty active trail running community and lots of races, which is great.

I also started running in Jr. High, but did mostly sprints and track and field, no endurance. Then in college started running longer distances for fitness. Like you, I have been hiking most of my life, but it wasn't til a few years ago that I started actually running on trails.

Yeah, it's annoying to have to deal with injuries. I've noticed as I've gotten older, it just takes longer, too, to recover, whether from a cold or from an injury. Ugh.

So, having a toddler, how do you get in your trail runs, especially your longer ones?