UKC

I'm trying to get a physio appointment, but the earliest I can get is next week and I fancied doing a fell race on Sunday, so was after some collective UKC wisdom.

I do a lot of fell running. I'm pretty good (win some races) but very unflexible - have never been close to touching my toes. For the last few months when I have unexpectedly stood on a rock on a descent and my foot has flexed too far up (because I wasn't expecting the impact, so my calf muscle wasn't contracted) I have had an increasingly bad pain in the joint where the shin meets the foot. It feels like a tendon problem and when it happens (twice in 4 hours on a recent run, once on each foot) it's very painful (crunch, tendons, that's my ankle sprained, sort of pain) but then I can just run it off and don't notice it after a few minutes.

Does this sound like anything anyone knows anything about? I really just want to know if I am risking long term damage by doing the race on Sunday.

In reply to ablackett:

I have problems with this too; it's called anterior ankle impingement. Here are a couple of mobilization techniques I find work quite well:

http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/improve-ankle-dorsiflexion-with-this-simp...
http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/foot-ankle-mobility-drill-for-runners/

In reply to r0b:

Thanks, now I know what it's called I can do a bit of reading around it.

Looks like it's caused by a bone spur or ankle arthritis - both of which sound quite worrying.

I see both of your suggestions are around improving flexibility in the joint. It feels to me that this might be the wrong way to go, as if it's more flexible it's more likely to crunch into itself. Am I missing something?

In reply to ablackett:

Bone spurs are rare, more likely to be soft tissue restrictions, especially if you have sprained your ankle a few times. Those exercises mobilize the ankle capsule and should give you greater dorsiflexion, so you will be less likely to feel the "crunch".

In reply to r0b:

Cheers rob, that makes sense.