I’m one week from a year of no calf implosion injuries.
I’d been fighting calf injuries for the three years prior. Here’s what worked for me…
Patience…I mentally prepared myself for a six month rehab program. It started with 8 weeks of a run-walk program. starting with 3x’s a week / 30 min of 1min run, 4min walk. Never more than 30 min. Never tempted to push the pace or duration.
No stretching…I completely stopped stretching my calves and used foam rolling as a replacement.
Seated calf raises - You have to strengthen your Soleus. Again, start slow and light.
Plyometrics…this may sound counter intuitive but I’m sure these helped. Start with jumping rope and go from there. I didn’t start this program until I was 6 months injury free.
This one is big…YOU CAN’T RUN THROUGH A NIGGLE. STOP IMMEDIATELY. NOT ONE STEP FARTHER after a twinge!!!
That’s right! I thought of you last evening and said to myself, “Self, what if your SlowTwitch buddy is not from the State of NJ, but is from the original Isle of Jersey? Wouldn’t that be a hoot!”
So, I’m 4 days out from my last run where I took 10 stride and strained my otherwise un-strained calf (right). I still feel a twinge in the upper area of the calf, horizontally across the “Peroneus Longus” and the Gastrocnemius". I imagine that I keep from running at all until that feeling goes away, correct?
It’s just super frustrating, as I had been running upwards of 8 miles a clip without issues. Then suddenly, strain city. I literately strained my left calf whilst beginning alight warm up and hour before an Oly! No rhyme or reason behind it that I can figure, except that I exhausted my calves with the training.
When training, typically 6-10 miles, more toward 10. This is at a minimum. I think I was up to 12-15 in the 2 months prior to the last Oly. I run at a fairly lower pace, in Zone 2. I only run an average 10 minute mile, maybe a little less at times.
I’m a very busy guy, so my scheduled varied a bit. But basically I ran Saturdays, Tuesdays, and a lighter Thursday run. I really don’t know what a “split” is (sorry, I’m a newb), but I average 9:20 across the 6.2 mile run. That was with an injury, albeit not too bad of a calf strain.
A “split” in a triathlon is your time for one of the events. So, your run split would be the total time for the run. I really just wanted to gage your race-pacee versus training pace. Which you more precisely provided.
More generally, a split is a time for some portion of an event. Eg, in a marathon you might have splits for each mile. Or in swimming splits per length of the pool.
Thanks Tom. Very helpful. I really appreciate your helping out. I really don’t want to batter you with this. I know that in the two weeks prior to the last Oly (10/19) I was running about 12-13 miles weekly, about. I gave my body a total four day rest prior to the event and felt great. I wasn’t having any calf problems. That’s why it was so weird when I strained my calf as I slowly began my warm-up. Very odd. Then, this past weekend, feeling great, and after a long warm up, I suffered a pretty painful strain in my previously uninjured calf immediately upon starting a slowly paced run. I’m just flabbergasted as to why the injuries would occur as they did.
No running until you’re pain free for at least a week…more like 10 days. Remember, think long term. It’s a tough mindset to get to.
The only goal is to get through every workout (that includes strength and plyo) without a setback. Easier/shorter/slower is better. Especially for the first 3 months.
Also, forget your old mileage/pace markers. Don’t compare your current rehab status to what you used to do. Look backwards to what you’ve done in the last couple of weeks and use that mileage/time as the basis for your next step forward…not what you’ve done when healthy.
I agree with the theme of what you say. I would extend that initial time-frame out to a month—and, I’d be VERY conservative about trying again.
I haven’t had the calf-strain/tear. But, I’ve had many others…including a sports-hernia (abdominal floor tear) back in 2017. That took three months of 3x weekly rehab to get to the point that I could run for 60 seconds pain free. Then it too another 6 months to get back to 20min per day of running.
From my power lifting days, I know that it’s good practice to start flushing blood, and a bit of lactic acid, through a strained or torn muscle. It’s helps prevent scarring and promotes healing. A well respected power lifter named Bill Starr put together a protocol on the issue. I’ll be following all the advice provided on this tremendous forum, adding some light exercises in the interim to warn the muscles up and get blood pumping into them.
unfortunately you’re at the age in life where these things happen to some pretty frequently. I remember reading/hearing about all the old guys I trained with when I was in my teens to mid 40s who were late 40s to early 60s talking about calf issues and scoffed. I scoff no more.
You need to see a physio, you will probably get a recommendation to move to higher drop shoes than Hoka which are all 4 or 5mm. Hoka’s are higher than the sandals. Lower drop = more stress/strain on the calf muscles, or at least that’s the common thinking.
You need to see a physio. They are (probably) going to recommend doing eccentric heel drops both straight leg and bent knee, seated calf raises better way to target the Soleus muscle vs standing calf raises), seated calf raises with a slow eccentric component. Potentially you might even have some plyometrics prescribed for you at some point.
you’ll probably need to pay more attention to how your calf’s feel and not run on the days they feel off/tired etc.
you will probably get a recommendation to avoid sand, loose dirt and other surfaces that put more stress on the calf’s in favor of the treadmill and paved/ packed dirt surfaces.
Ultimately there may not be a solution for you and just a mitigation strategy(ies). All the tiny calf tears that happened from age 47-50 and the major calf tear + all the scar tissue is what forced me out of racing.
Age 46 I won some prize money in triathlon, racing in a regional race that had a pro field & paid 5 deep. About 7 card carrying pros and maybe 5-6 others of us. That was my last paycheck racing. 6 weeks later my calf went pop while on an easy run.
After that I was missing about 3mo/yr from running due to this and it was starting to show up in my race splits.
IDK what you’re run training looks like but you might want to go to 4 or 5d/wk vs 6 or 7. Firmer surfaces, more treadmill, more walking to warm up, higher drop shoes and A LOT of strength training.