Do a search on a thread titled ouch, my calf hurts or something like that. Sounds like you might have the injury discussed there. It is a very good thread if it applies to you.

Thanks! Will look for thread.

sounds like a tight soleus muscle. check out www.tpmassageball.com. Their small roller thing does wonders for it. At least google soleus stretch and start doing those. Sounds like you are on your way to a calf strain and/or plantar fasciitis unless you get this under control.

Soleus muscle lies beneath and slightly below the Gastrocnemius (calf) and this could be the cause, but your "tight" and inside description likely points to the PT (Posterior Tibial) muscle/tendon and this lies in the medial aspect of the lower leg, running behind the medial malleolus (inside ankle bone) and inserting into the medial navicular (main insertion) and most of the bottom of the foot.

Being 115# and with the shoes/inserts you described and previous ITB syndrome, this is most assuredly a "tightness"/strectching issue.

---

____________________________________
Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

I ordered the tp massage ball set and will go in for a quick ART session this week. I bet it's very tight too as I now remember a couple months back, it hurt, but after a mile, it went away after warming up. I probably let it get away from me. It does not bother me when I bike or walk or go upstairs at all....thanks for all the input!! I am going to Italy in May for Du Worlds to defend my title-ha ha (won my age group in Denmark) so if I'm having problems this early I'm in a world of hurt if I don't get it taken care of. I think it will be one "hilly" race.

Ask 10 guys the same question and you'll get 10 different answers, here is mine:

I think I have the exact same issue. I also use 2090 (2100 now). My soreness is definitely below the calf, half way to the foot, dead center of the back of the leg. Last week I saw a sports massage therapist (she is staff for my local University Track team). I told her of my problem and assumed I should stretch the calf more; her suggestions were just the opposite: she said the muscle in question was already stretched too much and in fact it was "taunt" and beginning to tear. OK what should I do and what was the cause: she said it was too tight quads and hamstrings. As these major muscles in the top of the leg get tight, they pull on the weaker/small muscles in the surrounding areas. The weakest link stretches to the max and eventually begins to tear. This is what we now have. Other posts describing the name of the muscle, etc are exactly correct.

I try to run with more of a flat foot to avoid this pain as the foot flex's, I ice and take it easy. Even going down stairs can aggrivate the muscle. I thought this would be a good time to put more time in on the bike, but in fact this could magnify the problem. We should stretch the Hams and quads, easy and long, vary the stretch position. I find a treadmill is much softer on the feet and it is easier to control the foot movements.

Please keep me informed if you discover any contrary, or supporting info, I also need to get over this nagging injury.

Is it on the bone, or in the muscle / tendons?

Deke

Well, in reply to where it is, it's not in the muscle, nor really the tendons, that's what is so weird, it's in that "dead" area right below the calf muscles and right above the ankle, yet on the side. All my previous issues stem from tight hamstrings, so nothing would surprise me. It seems like others on this forum had the same issue, so it's interesting to hear what others say. I know I overstretch too, so this could be the issue. It's just frustrating because all year I can run 18 miles at a time, no issues, then I take some time off, run 3 miles and there it is.

I ran 14 miles 2 weeks ago, I ran 1 mile on Saturday and walked home! Maybe overtraining inflames something? I'm icing the spot and staying low for a week or two. When I start up again, I think I do a 15 minute treadmill run everyday for a week, the next week 20 minutes per day; and progress up by 5 minutes per week (as suggested by trainer).