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How would you handle this injury?
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So I’m trying to get in shape for a fall marathon. I tweaked my calf doing some sprints. Minor muscle sprain. So I took 3 days off and did an easy run today. I felt my calf, but barely. Pain started at a level of 1.5/10 and at the end of my run it was at a .5 or 1/10. Very minor. But here’s what I’m thinking. I plan on doing more volume than I’ve ever done before because I won’t be biking or swimming. Is it better to take a week or so off from running to let the calf heal, so I can amp up the volume later on? Or should I continue to run regularly?
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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Afg53] [ In reply to ]
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Amputation. The only solution.
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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Afg53] [ In reply to ]
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Rest; the race probably won’t happen anyways.
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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Afg53] [ In reply to ]
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Most would say probably rest for 1-2 weeks at least, but you have self diagnosed and always hard to know exactly what is going on.
Personally, I am used to pain at that level somewhere in my body when running so would probably just take some anti-inflammatories and live with it if it remains nice and mild.
Getting reviewed by a good sports physio would be ideal.....
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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Afg53] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve had my share of calf strains. I would take a couple of days off then test it (preferably on a treadmill) with a 1-2 mile run. If that goes well I would ease back into the mileage (again, preferably on a treadmill). The softer surface of the treadmill will help you regain mileage with less chance of reinjuring as you do so....just my opinion.
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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Afg53] [ In reply to ]
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Hard to say based on what you said but having only had calf related strain injuries I have found even minor strains I should have given weeks. What minor at the end of an effort didn't was easily made worse after a week and then it was 3+ weeks minimum off with a walk run recovery cycle after. I would just cycle and swim for a bit to maintain fitness until the calf feels right and guaranteed not to make it worse.
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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Shambolic] [ In reply to ]
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Shambolic wrote:
Hard to say based on what you said but having only had calf related strain injuries I have found even minor strains I should have given weeks. What minor at the end of an effort didn't was easily made worse after a week and then it was 3+ weeks minimum off with a walk run recovery cycle after. I would just cycle and swim for a bit to maintain fitness until the calf feels right and guaranteed not to make it worse.

I'm in this "boat" now :(. Started water-skiing in June and weather was decent doing 5 days of it. Slalom loads up my left (back) leg so I was worried, but jogged daily to keep it loose.

Then went out for a 5K run in Addidas which have heel lift. Next day it's like oohh my left Achilles is inflamed and I'm limping a bit. Had that before, but usually in Sept or October!
Rolling, stretches and it's healing....slowly.

Then today I tried skiing on opposite (left) leg forward and got throttled during the start. Whaam! my calf muscle strained big-time before I could let go of the handle. Now can hardly walk and I guess I'm a swimmer for the rest of the month!

This Achilles followed by a full blown calf attack happened to my right leg years ago at the tail end of a sprint tri. I hobbled to finish the event. The calf pull took about 2-3 weeks and the Achilles took over a year to fix itself, but it's been great since healing up.

It's almost as if this stuff has to near complete failure, to get better.

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Re: How would you handle this injury? [Afg53] [ In reply to ]
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My two cents as a physical therapist who currently has a calf strain. I always think in terms of green/yellow/red light for pain during activity. Pain getting worse = red light, stop. Pain staying the same = yellow light, proceed with (great) caution. Getting better as the activity progresses, I treat that as a green light and continue. But with that said, mine started out as a mild calf strain at the end of a run and after a mountain bike mishap that made it way worse, I had super severe pain and could barely walk. That was over four weeks ago and I am "running" (more like very light jogging) <10 miles a week, when before the injury I was doing 30+ miles per week at a much faster pace.

My current plan is a very slow progression of running as long as there is no "red light", to do calf strengthening exercises regularly, and be glad there are no races any time soon because I would have missed the last month plus with this thing. I need to be able to run 26.2 miles by September or else I probably wouldn't be running at all right now.

Also one other thing, I am assuming we are talking about pain in the calf muscle and not down by the Achilles tendon.
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