Turn And Face The Sprains

Number of times I'd sprained something in the first 37 years of my life: zero

Number of times I've sprained something since turning 37: two

That's right, gang - I am now on my second sprain in a five-week span! In mid-October I very mildly sprained my left ankle. That was a bummer indeed, as I had two half marathons on consecutive weekends right after that. It healed quickly, though, and without causing too much damage to either my ankle or my overall training schedule.

Last Wednesday, I went to the ninja gym to start my big off-season training. I was determined to improve my grip strength and my balance. Things started out great, but then after about 40 minutes I went to step on a balance obstacle that I've done dozens of times without incident, and instead of stepping on it with my midfoot, I stepped on it with my toe. Which then slipped off. And my whole body went topsy-turvy and I hit the ground. Pretty quickly I realized I would need to ice this, so I cut my workout short and went straight home. Despite icing and elevating, it got worse and worse, and after a few hours I could barely even limp. Putting any weight on it was horrible.

I went to urgent care and got x-rays, just to make sure I didn't break a metatarsal. Nothing is broken, but my foot is definitely sprained, and probably a much more severe sprain than my left ankle was. Wednesday and Thursday I could barely put any weight on it. Friday was a bit better, as I was able to hobble around with just one crutch and putting some weight on my lateral heel. Throughout the weekend it got better and better, and today I can mostly get around fine (although I still definitely favor my left foot, and I'm using one crutch as a cane whenever I need to go on stairs or long distances).

Having never dealt with a bad soft-tissue injury before this, it has been truly fascinating to see how it works. What has worked for me to start recovering so quickly?

1) Very little movement for the first 72 hours. I got fewer than 1000 steps each of those first few days.

2) Elevating the foot as much as possible. I laid on the couch basically all day long with my foot up on the back of the couch.

3) Icing religiously. Every two hours in the first 72 hours, now down to every 3-4 hours.

4) Gentle stretching. I'm working through the range of motion that my foot is capable of doing. If something hurts, I stop.

5) Proper footwear. When I had to go out in the first 72 hours, I wore a boot. Now, I wear regular shoes, but with the laces loosened almost as much as possible on the right foot.

6) Crutches. I had to use both in the first couple days, but now I'm down to using one as a cane just for support.

Normally a sprain can take up to six weeks to fully recover, but I am optimistic that I can be back to normal activity after about 3-4 weeks. In the meantime, I've been doing some upper body and ab work, and was able to incorporate hand cycling (my gym has a machine) and some hip flexor work as well. I probably won't be back to the ninja gym for at least 4 weeks, which is a bummer, but I don't want to do any activity that might require me to land on my feet from a height. Biggest lesson learned: DON'T BE A DAMN KLUTZ!