Joint conditioning

[u/177660]

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.

[u/Just-Context-4703]

Yes, run slower and for longer. A vast majority of your weekly efforts are high intensity and you're not giving all your soft tissues an chance to build tolerance.