After catching a stomach parasite in late July (swimming a lake in OR) I basically had to take 7 weeks off. Once better I ran too much too soon and ended up with what I believe to be calf muscle tears. I stopped running for 6 weeks and have slowly started building back up. This morning I ran 3 miles which is the longest I’ve run since the injury. I stopped at mile 3 because I started to ever so slightly feel “that feeling” in my right calf. I immediately stopped and began strecthing.
As I sit here at work 3 hours later my calf feels fine. Is this normal?
Should I :
A) Rest a day and continue trying to build starting by running 3 miles again.
B) Stop running altogether for 6 weeks so I don’t screw up next year’s schedule (already signed up for CA1/2 IM in March).
c) ???
PS - I’ve never had any swelling or bruising and I’ve kept biking/swimming since Sept. I’m 33 and have never been injured before so this is new to me.
This whole thing has me really pissed off. Thanks for your advice in advance.
I had a similar injury and stopped each time it started to hurt, figuring I was reinjuring the calf muscle. This happened to me about 4-5 times after laying off running for 6 weeks like you. Finally, I ran through the pain warnings and everything was fine. My uneducated guess is that I had to break loose the scar tissue which had developed and that was what was sending me the pain warning signals. Good luck.
ART active release technique. Its a combination of applied pressure and moving the muscle through its normal movement. Its very good and you should be able to find someone close. If you can’t find a contact I can ring my guy and try to get the information from him. PM me if you need me to. I am the master of calf injuries, I now get ART with massage directly after or soon after. You should be able to get bach to 100% within 4-6 weeks. If you can’t get ART then I would get deep tissue massage done but be prepared for it to be really deep and painful as sometimes the tear/scar tissue is near the bone. Try stretching you calf with your big toe flexed upwards at 90 degrees. (ie a step). This stretches the (flexahelia longis) (spelling I know!) which is the muscle that runs closest to the bone. Good Luck!
I have one big calf and one little calf, and my friends always make fun of me. Then I cry. I have tried doing calf raises with just the little one but he won’t grow. What should I do?
ART = Active Release Therapy. Involves locating and breaking up scar tissue in muscles. Started by a Chiro in Colorado Springs but now has a large network or providers across the U.S. They usually have booths at the IM north america events.
It is truly amazing. My local guy here has probably saved me from surgery a couple of times. I had really bad ankle pain and my “regular” docs could not find out what it was so they wanted to scope it, my ART guy diagnosed it as scar tissue in my hip-flexor causing me to over-compensate. 100% better in 2-3 sessions.
I pulled/tore my right calf three weeks before this years’ IM Hawaii. After qualifying at Canada, I resumed training in the short period between races. Obviously, I did too much, too fast and caused the injury. The area involved was the upper and outer area of the calf where the Gastroc and Soleus intersect. With ten days to go (after a couple of weeks of almost no running) I ran pain free for an hour before my calf pulled in one step. I walked home from this run. I was pretty sure finishing Hawaii was going to be a stretch. But, I was entered and going so I had no choice but to do everything I could to heal the injury as fast as possible. I got Ultrasound/Electrical Stim. treatments at my DC two days in a row. In addition, he determined that my Cuboid bone in my foot needed a little support and may have contributed to the injury. He cut out a small piece of insole material and placed that in the shoe under the insole as a support. Once I got to Hawaii, I went to the ART tent at the Start/Finish area. I lucked out and had a really good practitioner from Florida work on the calf and the adhesion. I went back the next day as well. In addition to this, I saw an Accupucturist in Kona who did treatment. On my own (after the ART guy recommended it) I iced/heat treated the calf three or four times a day, using the following protocol. 1 min. ice 1 min. moist heat (use a moist heating pad unit or hot tub) then 1 min. ice 2 min heat, 1min. ice, 3, and so on up the ladder to 1/5 then, down the ladder 1/4, 1/3 , 1/2, 1/1. I did this religously. In addition, I gently did calf stretches. I did not run a step for ten days prior to the race. I swam and biked gently a couple times, but otherwise did very little.
Race day I prayed a lot, hoping the calf would allow me to run. As luck would have it, I completed the Mar. in 4:04. Not a blazing performance, but under the circumstances I was happy I didn’t have to walk except through aid stations.
So, moral of the story, don’t completely rest, I think this is counter productive. Get aggressive with your treatment, and try to assess whether you’ve got an imbalance or strutural issue that needs correcting so this won’t occur next season. Also, don’t make training mistakes. Good luck, and safe training.
Obviously you should take steroids and directly inject them into your small calf. This may however have some side effects of making your already small penis even smaller! They also can cause increased hair growth, which if you get any hairier you would be mistaken for the missing link.
Walnut, Get “the stick” either the travel or the track version, it will keep you calves supple and break up adhesions. One more thing, keep your calf stretches very gentle, you don’t want to feel any strong pulling sensations. If you are dropping your heels off of a step and using all of your weight to stretch, STOP!! It might never heal with that much stress. I went through all of it before, dont make the same mistakes I did, it prolongs the recovery. You can run through the recovery process if you don’t get crazy. Your calf is stretching before you feel it pulling against your gastroc/soleus, just touch your achilles up high where it ties into the soleus, and you can feel it tightening this is all the tension you need, remember the muscle is injured, so don’t pull hard. It worked for me and I was able to resume running almost immediately. Good Luck!!!
I’ve had this injury many times before, usually when I increase volume to soon, and I think is not a tear or a pull, I believe it is related some how to a nerve being pinched by the swelling of the calf/soleous muscle or some type of compartment syndrome. I may have read that this is similar to shin splints but on the back side of the leg.
is there a doctor who can confirm this?
Anyhow, the way I’ve treated it is by applying ice to reduce the swelling, stretch the calf and the soleous and take ibuprofen for two weeks. Don’t run for two weeks and start with short runs. For some reason running after the bike makes it easier on the calf.
pdxjohn wrote: The area involved was the upper and outer area of the calf where the Gastroc and Soleus intersect. With ten days to go (after a couple of weeks of almost no running) I ran pain free for an hour before my calf pulled in one step.
WOW, just what I have at the moment, same type of “pulled it in one step”, too. Right after recovery from a torn plantaris on the same leg. Good to hear your’s cleared up soon…I hope mine will. It feels good enough to trot just a bit, but, I’m not going to push it. I MUST get well this off season.
Walnut, Get “the stick” either the travel or the track version,
Absolutely. Great for the quads and the calves. I also use one of those superheavy 2-head shiatsu massagers on my calves, quads and hamstrings. It works really well between ART or deep tissue massages and really keeps down the adhesions/calcium deposits/deep muscle pain.
You are correct. You can have anterior (much more common) or posterior shin splints. Both come from the same thing (i.e. too fast, too long too soon, improper biomechanics, etc.) Since there are 5 other major muscle origins off the posterior/lateral lower leg, it can often be hard for a layman and physician alike to get a proper diagnosis. Fortunately, treatment is very similar anyway (except for a complete muscle tear or more serious compartment syndrome).
Give Accupunture a try. Make sure the practitioner will not only do needle therapy but Moxa as well/ This is a heat tretament that really gets things firing. Then hit the ice/heat regimen like your life depends on it. I assure you it will get better.
It’s definitely painful!! My hips and glutes are a mess, he’s attempting to fix me. 