Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Miracle of Active Recovery

After mildly spraining my right ankle last week, I decided to treat it with an active recovery program. I got the idea after reading all the runners' suggestions on Kevin Sayer's Ultrarunning site. While I did not run at all, I did a bit of walking, lots of core stability exercises (staying off my bad ankle) and some weights. In addition to that, I did lots and lots of icing (and R.I.C.E.-ing) and took a bunch of anti-inflammatories.

Six days into the program, I was able to go on my first run and I feel much butter. The ankle still a little sore, especially in the mornings, but things are looking up.

(Disclaimer: I do recommend that everyone see a doctor when hurt and not just treat it based on some internet recommendations. I have sprained both of my ankles countless times, especially during my basketball days, so I somewhat know what a mild sprain feels like versus a more severe injury. The most important thing, as always: Listen to your body!)

3 comments:

Christine said...

Glad you are feeling better! I did a 4 mile run on the treadmill the other day and it basically chewed my legs up and spit them out the other side. My legs have hated me ever since. I'm in search of a great trail to gain their love back again. Something soft and cushy..haha!

Tri+Umph said...

RICE really does the trick with ankles, from my experience! I had twisted my ankle in a pothole several months back, not a horrible twist, but bad enough running on it would have been very stupid of me.

Anyways, I did RICE religiously for the next 3 days or so. I still walked to class (~3 miles/day) and got workouts in on the bike. I think I actually only missed one run, 2-3 days of RICE + moderate activity did the trick!

Good to hear you're able to run again already!

Gotta Run..... said...

Love the disclaimer although we never like to follow that advice ourselves.

It does sound like what you are doing is working so keep it up.

Cheers to a speedy recovery!