Ankle pains that move up my leg

Question
I've been training for a half marathon for a little over a month.  I have no issues running except my ankles and calf begin to hurt sometimes.  It is usually when running on hard surfaces.  It feels like the interior of my ankle and the pain will move up my leg.  Today it hurt so bad I could only run 2 miles when the other day I had no problem running 5. What's wrong???

Answer
Great job on training for a half marathon Rebekah!  I'm really sorry to hear you're having pain though.  Luckily, I think that we can fix it and keep you running.  I have 3 suggestions (in no particular order), but that doesn't mean you should use them all.

1) You could go to a traditional running store and they'll probably tell you that you pronate too much and then give you orthotics that are for people who pronate too much. Many, many people use orthotics.  Some it helps, some it doesn't.  It helps some people or no one would buy them, but I've also heard many people like you that spend time and money getting some and then start running and and within a mile have pain either in the same spot or a different spot.  It's an option many people choose and you might want to as well.

2) Go to a physical therapy doctor and say you'd like to check for muscle imbalances because you think that's what is causing ankle and calf pain while running.  You don't want the physical therapist just to ice, massage, ultrasound, stretch, and give you some ankle exercises.  That's short term fixes.  Some of that is fine, but the what you want is for them to look for muscle imbalances.  Pain is telling you that something is wrong.  A muscle imbalance or asymmetry often causes pain like you describe.  If the physical therapy doctor isn't doing what you think will solve the problem have it looked at by someone else. If you need help finding a good one, I can help you with that as well.  Just use the follow-up feature after you read this and ask me.

3) Try a different foot strike.  I've seen a mid-foot strike quickly cure many problems in the ankle, knee, and hip.  This is definitely your cheapest and probably quickest option.  Go to youtube.com and watch "The Barefoot Running Professor".  He demonstrates the mid-foot strike barefoot, but I often do it in regular running shoes.  Barefoot is just better for demonstration.  Make sure that you don't do this foot strike too much at first. Start slow and with short distances. I would suggest not going more than a half mile your first time trying it and then seeing how your ankles and feet feel the next day.  You'll be sore, but it's a good sore.  The soreness will go away as you get stronger. This is much different than the pain you are currently having. That pain you have now is telling you that forces are going through parts of your body in a way that they shouldn't.  

You can try any or all 3 of these.  Actually, I would probably recommend trying my 2nd and 3rd suggestions first, but you do what you think is best.  Please follow-up with any other questions or ask me to expound on something that I said that you're interested in.  I hope you can run from this problem soon!