Hey guys!
I'm just looking for some advice and would like to know if anyone has had any experience with this.
I am an avid runner and have been training passionately or the past five years, including a lot of cross-training as I was studying sports science in school as well. I love to compete and did several short road races in spring (never more than 10k) and pretty much out of nowhere, I started experiencing severe, right-sided ankle pain.
I've sprained my ankle several times before (2x on the left side, 1x on the right side, but a YEAR earlier), so I thought I'd just take a couple of days off and do some rehab. Unfortunately, the pain got worse.
Long story short, an MRI then showed I had some inflamed arthritis in my right ankle. The first orthopedist didn't really consider it that bad. He told me with some physio and the right shoes, it will be fine and I don't really have to reduce my training (which, at that time, was an average 20 mile week, which really isn't that much). The second orthopedist, because it didn't get better, told me "you'd better get a bike and forget about running" (how insensitive can you be?).
This was in June. I've done a lot of physio since, cross-training, took glucosamine for a while. I took a complete break from running for a good 6 weeks after the diagnosis, and took another 4 weeks off in August. Now, I can maybe do 2 to a maximum of 3 short runs a week now of around 3 to a maximum 5 miles before the pain gets too bad to continue.This isn't what I was hoping for.
So my question: how can this be? I'm only 25, I've only run for roughly 5 years and never had a really heavy mileage load (the maximum was around 30 miles per week when I was 22).
Any advice? Ideas? Experiences? I'd appreciate any input. I don't want to stop running, and I still want to compete.
I'm just looking for some advice and would like to know if anyone has had any experience with this.
I am an avid runner and have been training passionately or the past five years, including a lot of cross-training as I was studying sports science in school as well. I love to compete and did several short road races in spring (never more than 10k) and pretty much out of nowhere, I started experiencing severe, right-sided ankle pain.
I've sprained my ankle several times before (2x on the left side, 1x on the right side, but a YEAR earlier), so I thought I'd just take a couple of days off and do some rehab. Unfortunately, the pain got worse.
Long story short, an MRI then showed I had some inflamed arthritis in my right ankle. The first orthopedist didn't really consider it that bad. He told me with some physio and the right shoes, it will be fine and I don't really have to reduce my training (which, at that time, was an average 20 mile week, which really isn't that much). The second orthopedist, because it didn't get better, told me "you'd better get a bike and forget about running" (how insensitive can you be?).
This was in June. I've done a lot of physio since, cross-training, took glucosamine for a while. I took a complete break from running for a good 6 weeks after the diagnosis, and took another 4 weeks off in August. Now, I can maybe do 2 to a maximum of 3 short runs a week now of around 3 to a maximum 5 miles before the pain gets too bad to continue.This isn't what I was hoping for.
So my question: how can this be? I'm only 25, I've only run for roughly 5 years and never had a really heavy mileage load (the maximum was around 30 miles per week when I was 22).
Any advice? Ideas? Experiences? I'd appreciate any input. I don't want to stop running, and I still want to compete.