Discussion: What's up with the ankles?

Is there something particularly treacherous about the terrain this year? I don't recall ever seeing so many ankle injuries reported on AP. Aside from myself, we've got Spike, Swampfox, both Armstrongs, and now Peggy. Probably a few others that I've missed as well. If this keeps up, Kenny's going to have to add a new section for recording trail-O results.

Take the total number of hours spent orienteering and see how we compare to the study below that shows 2 ankle injuries with every 1000 hours of orienteering....

Ekstrand, J., Roos, H., & Tropp, H. (1990). The incidence of ankle sprains in orienteering. Scientific Journal of Orienteering, 6, 3-9.

This study investigated the relationship between participation time and ankle sprains in competitive orienteering. 15,474 competitors performed 77,369 races over 5 consecutive days in the Swedish O-ringen 5-day event in 1987. The average length of participation for each runner was 1.01 hours per day. All injuries requiring medical advice were analysed. Of the 658 injuries, 137 (23.9%) were ankle sprains. The total incidence for all injuries was 8.4/10,000 hours and the incidence of ankle sprains was 1.8/1,000 hours.

Me too! Aparently my right ankle and achilles tendon started bothering me on Nov 12th, but now my left hurts. I never noticed the switch. Could this be due to tight winter calves? Running too fast downhill?

I've had to start cross training. Besides taping, which I think has been significantly discussed, what's a guy to do? (Specificly thinking of long term strength training)

Maybe it is becoming fashionable to have an ankle injury?

what's a guy to do? (Specificly thinking of long term strength training)

Not backed up by any specific evidence, but I think:

1. Run in the terrain a lot.

2. Be prepared to treat an injury as soon as possible after the injury (treating an injury in minutes rather than hours afterwards).

3. Have a plan for what to do when/if you get hurt (e.g., plans for cross training and rehab exercises).

I wonder what percentage of ankle injuries are in some part due to the shoes.

Clem, Vadim, myself & Dasha all tweaked our ankles this fall enough to miss at least one week(end) of races and in some cases several weekends.

I actually twisted my ankle, fairly badly, in March. I wore my Active Ankle for all races from the Team Trials through Colorado. Then the ankle was feeling fine so I went without it, and twisted it again during the Highlander (but not so bad that I had to quit, just slow down). I've had several minor twists -- with the AA on, don't let anyone tell you you can't -- since then and then the edge-of-road--pile-of-leaves incident the other day.

I used to have aching ankles all the time, then finally they just got strong and I could turn over on them several times in a race and be fine. This year it's different. :-(

Well, let's see, this is my third serious ankle injury (meaning that at least some time off was required). Others were 1998 and 2002. Given 150 hours in the terrain each year, it looks like my mean time to failure is pretty consistent with rates sited by Hammer.

I'm a bit skeptical about ankle injuries only being 1/4 of the total. I think a lot of ankle injuries don't go reported because they are so common and most of us know how to treat them.

I had a particularly severe ankle injury in '95 and missed about 6 months of orienteering/running. I got on the bike too soon, and morphed it into a hip and lower back injury on the other side. Eventually I had surgery, which helped some, but the final step in total recovery was proper stretching and strengthening of the achilles. In 25 years of orienteering and trail running that is the only ankle injury I've had, but it was a doozy. Mostly I think lots of trail running in my 30s and 40s made my ankles strong.

My ankle injury this time wasn't a twist... and after some deduction I'm pretty sure that it was a combination of shoes and putting stress on the ankle by playing ultimate in a gym (hard floor, lots of jumping). It seems better now.

I've only twisted an ankle badly enough that I had to quit a course once in my 13 years of orienteering.

I've twisted an ankle in a race badly enough to quit twice - both times in Highlanders!
All the elite Swedes around here seem to run in Active Ankles, even in training, even today on asphalt in the snow.

Do they run in AAs in competitions, too?

Why aren't those high top O shoes more popular?

I'd bet it's like safer cars making drivers more reckless. If you wear AAs all the time, you can stop worrying about your ankles, and just go. (It's a guess.)

Active Ankles gave me blisters. I have had good success with the Jala Xtrainers. They cost as much as Active Ankles plus o-shoes and weigh about the same too. The high-top Integrators gave me no support what so ever.

cedarcreek, your guess is a correct one, though I still managed to break my ankle with AA 2 years ago :( while running recklessly downhill...

Yes, a lot of the Swedes race in AAs, but the recklessness with the added knowledge of safety is only part of the answer. They work a lot, especially in the winter, on core strength, as well as ankle strength, and i think that, combined with AAs, provides the necessary confidence for flying downhill like maniacs (as i have written in my training log a few times, i get slaughtered on downhills by some of these guys, compared to how i do on the flat or uphills!)

"what's a guy to do?"

play hockey.

Being a perpetual ankle roller (followed by a stream of expletives - sorry to anyone in earshot), what are the best exercises for building ankle strength? Has anyone tried the ski board (rubber ball in the wooden board - looks like Saturn) for this? Need to do something while watching Hockey Night in Canada.