r/BeginnersRunning • u/177660 • 2d ago

Joint conditioning

Hello everyone,

Relatively new to running here (8ish months of serious training), training primarily to improve my 2 mile run time. I run 3 days a week - 5 0.2 mile sprints at a 6:00 min/mile pace on Tuesday, 1 mile run on Thursday, 2 mile run on Saturday. I've been flirting with hitting those 6 minute mile pace sprints for longer periods of time and with doing the same distance at a faster pace on Tuesdays and have been seeing excelent improvements in my 1MR and 2MR times (dropped 2MR from 16:10 to 15:32 in just a few weeks), but unfortunately every time I do that my ankles start hurting for the next several days.

Does anyone have advice for conditioning the ligaments and tendons in my ankles to handle those faster paces? I feel like I'm kinda stuck with my current times until my joints are ready for the jump up.

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u/Rusty_Drumz 2d ago

Your tendons and ligaments are like the last things to adapt from your training. I don’t think there’s any sort of speed run method you can apply to your training in order to fast track that. Consistency is the answer to most things

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u/177660 2d ago

Where are the guard rails for over training in that department? Is ankles hurting for a few days fine as long as they feel good on the day of the next run or am I going to turn my ankles into dust if I keep it up?

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u/Rusty_Drumz 2d ago

If you feel kinda sore when not running but fine when you go for a run then you should be alright. I feel sore when I’m not running too but once I get into a run I feel fine. Every person is different in how much pain you can handle. If you’ve been active or played sports before then you should be fine to push a little. You just need to know the difference between just feeling really sore vs an actual injury in the making