so here’s my deal…i finished up my tri season with half vineman, went pretty well except for a minor meltdown on the run. i recovered for a week and then went into strictly run training for the chicago marathon, with hopes of qualifying for boston. i was doing 4-5 runs/week (1 session mile repeats, 1 session mid-length tempo, 1 long run, 1 strides, 1 easy) and everything was going great for the first couple of weeks. then 2 days after my long run 2 weekends ago i started having some pain in my calf, on the medial (inside) part of my lower leg, right about where the gastrocnemius meets the soleus muscle. i took the hint, cut out the session of mile repeats i had scheduled and it started to feel better. i did my scheduled tempo run and it felt a little sore when i started, but then went away while running. afterwards my leg felt fine, no worse than before i started.
i still had the same low level of pain going into the weekend, nothing too bad, so i went ahead with my scheduled long run (20mi) but did a looped course so i could stop if the pain got worse. during the run, my leg felt great after i got warmed up and i ran strong the first 18 miles…the last two miles i could feel my leg tightening up and i started to feel some pain in my achilles tendon on the same leg but i finished strong. after the run, the pain in both my calf and achilles was much worse…i had a hard time even walking normally.
the pain lasted another 2 days, bad enough to make me limp around everywhere. there was no swelling or bruising associated with the pain. i stopped running completely, and now i haven’t run since sunday when i did my long run. i’ve been icing, stretching, massaging, and self treating with NSAIDS. i tried doing a short bike on tuesday but ended up doing a one-legged drill the whole way because my achilles was still hurting (calf pain was gone). by yesterday all the pain was gone so i did another short ride on the trainer and it felt fine. this morning i woke up to a little calf pain, but no achilles pain.
sorry for the long post, but now i’m at the point where i’m trying to figure out if i can salvage my run training. i’m a little nervous about running and aggravating the injury again, but then again i’m also 5 weeks from chicago. i’m going to try a short run today to see how it feels. any advice on possible diagnoses, and how to proceed with my training from here?
thanks in advance for any responses.
vmn2