Fast Running Blog

So about a month ago, I missed a step walking down the stairs, and my ankle rolled inwards and I landed on it with my full body weight... I've taken care of it, and swelling has all but disappeared, but the ligaments are still terribly stretched. I was an idiot in the short term, and ran a few days after initial injury, but at this point I've run one time in the last 3/4 weeks. I've been cycling, swimming and doing the rowing machine instead, but my ligaments haven't strengthened.

I have a theory (I don't know why it took me so long to think about this): is it possible that when I've been swimming, my kicks have been stretching my ankle and undoing all of the healing?

Any/all advice would be greatly welcomed!

Chris, I'm not sure about the severity of your injury so take this with a grain of salt.  My rolled ankle injury started healing when I quit babying it.  I did ankle exercises at work and made a concerted effort to walk normally.  At first I babied it and missed a couple runs because I asked too much of it too quickly.  Everything I've read says to max-perform it - use it as long as there is no major pain.  Whne the pain is too great, lay off.  Otherwise, do what you can tolerate.  Also, FYI, I got over the final hump when I started running in a new pair of shoes.  Maybe it cushioned me more, or maybe it was gonna get better at that time anyway but that was my experience.

Nothing would make me happier than to start running again. I'm on the verge of doing it, because its been so long, and serious swelling/pain/etc. stopped awhile ago.

I had a couple episodes where I could not run, but if you can tolerate the run I think you're better off trying to tough it out.  Again, a purely amateur viewpoint with no medical background to back it up.  Just my limited experience.