My peroneal thingy and I disagree.

[NewOrleansLady]

Greetings! I was training for my first full marathon last year and injured my peroneus ligament thingy. I went to a physical therapist who told me rest, ice, and gave me some cool exercises to do. It look a long time for it to stop hurting, but being a carpenter by day, rest is not really in my job description. Anyways I dropped out of training. Did the exercises and I think it healed ok.

This year, I'm trying it again. Taking it easy and walking whenever I feel the slightest twinge in my ankle. It's been good. Anyways, A few nights ago I did my longest run of training. 20 miles. It went pretty well, but the next morning I noticed a new pain. It was under my foot near my ankle. (The old pain was directly under the ankle when I push off). Today, about 4 days later, it feels fine walking. If I stay active all day, it'll ache a little towards the end of the day (like say 8pm). It's not like a sledgehammer to the foot or anything, but it makes me nervous. You know?

This is my question, the race is Feb 1st. I'm actually ready now (except for the ankle thing). I'm willing to get a desk job, ick, in order to give this injury some true rest time. But what does "rest" mean? Sitting down all day? Light walking? One handed cartweels as opposed to backflips? I'm not sure. Also, if I do this race, walking when I need to and all, is there a chance of my foot snapping off at the ankle or something? I mean, how much damage could I really do? I really really really want to finish this thing (crawling if necessary) and I'm willing to do whatever it takes.

[Heidi]

Hi,

Is this where the pain is?

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/foot/peroneusbrevis.htm

If so it could be a continuation of your problems from before. However there are also a couple of other things it could be such as a stress fracture. Due to not being able to assess the foot and determine the problem, it is impossible to say the worst that could happen if you take part in the race.

Rest in this context means resting the injury. So you can do whatever you are comfortable to do, without pain or discomfort. If you can walk pain free then this is fine, if you can cycle etc then go ahead. Just avoid anything and everything that causes any discomfort.

If you can get to see a professional before the race then I would advise that you do. They can check what is really going on and maybe give you some advice and last minute treatment.