I am at my wits end with my lower legs and the cramping sensation that I have been experiencing. While I am running, I will experience what seems to be a cramp in top end of the soleus muscle or the bottom end of the gastroc. I am pretty sure it is in the soleus, but I can never be to sure. The muscle tightens and the pain runs down to my achilles tendon. If this “cramp” happens, I am down from running for a long time (2-4 weeks). The length of time it takes to heal makes me think the injury is something other than a cramp. These injuries have seriously hampered my run training over the winter, and I am not at too pleased about that either.
I have an appointment with a sports medicine doctor, but it is not until Feb. 2. I was wondering if anyone else had similar feelings at some point in their running. I have been physically active for 5 years. I have training with the purpose of racing either bicycles or triathlon for 4 years.
I am at my wits end with my lower legs and the cramping sensation that I have been experiencing. While I am running, I will experience what seems to be a cramp in top end of the soleus muscle or the bottom end of the gastroc. I am pretty sure it is in the soleus, but I can never be to sure. The muscle tightens and the pain runs down to my achilles tendon. If this “cramp” happens, I am down from running for a long time (2-4 weeks). The length of time it takes to heal makes me think the injury is something other than a cramp. These injuries have seriously hampered my run training over the winter, and I am not at too pleased about that either.
I have an appointment with a sports medicine doctor, but it is not until Feb. 2. I was wondering if anyone else had similar feelings at some point in their running. I have been physically active for 5 years. I have training with the purpose of racing either bicycles or triathlon for 4 years.
I’ve had a slew of lower leg problems. Most from trauma, like falling, but I’ve had cramping, achilles, and lost of other issues.
Two things have fixed that. #1, running in minimal shoes like the H-Street
#2. Massage and stretch like your life depends on it. I use the TP massage ball tools minimum 4 times a week and make sure that my legs are nice an loose. Cold, easy stretching in the morning and night have done amazing things for me.
I’ve used there two thing to great success with quite a few athletes. The massage seems to be more crucial, but couple that with nice strong, loose, legs wont hurt one bit.
As far as what going on with the leg, Hell if I know, but it does sound like there is something going on in the muscle that needs to be addressed. I’d bet if you felt around, you would find a place that is sore, tight and painful to massage.
I’m trying out compression socks at the moment and so far I love them. Shayne Culpepper uses them for every run and loves them so I took her husbands advice and gave them a try. So for it feels nice. Not sure how effective it is but it does give me a sense of security.
I had a similar thing happen to me in November, and am now just getting back to a normal running routine. I used the stick several times a day and finally got a massage. The massage therapist said I probably suffered a cramp. He said the calf was real tight. He worked on it for an hour. I started running three days after that. At first, my calf was tight, but it has since loosened up. Start back slowly. My pace is about a minute and a half slower. Good luck.
Thanks for the responses. I am going to continue stretching and massaging as if my life depended on it. I hate missing this much training time. Biking is my strength, so in order to drop my times for this year I wanted a solid run base. That does not seem to be happening. Oh well, I guess there is always swimming. I suck at that too. Unfortunately, it is only 10% of the day.
Always be careful to stretch a muscle that could possibly be torn. It can break up the beginnings of the scar tissue formation and set you back even farther.
If indeed it is just a cramp and you believe it is in the soleus, you can isolate the stretch for the soleus. Since the gastroc is a 2 joint muscle, you can make it relax by bending your knee. If you hold your foot flat on a sland board with your knee bent at 90 degrees, you are only stretching your soleus (perhaps everyone knows this already, don’t mean to sound demeaning).
I had worked myself down to running fairly comfortably at 6:45 pace per mile. I was very careful about never increasing my longest run or my total weekly mileage by more than 10%. I know that I don’t know if there is a tear or not, but are getting tears common while running especially with a slow, methodical build-up?
You are right, it is uncommon, however, not unheard of. Layman’s definition of a muscle strain is “violent contraction of a muscle against an immovable object.” This can be from a rock, stepping on uneven ground, etc. Another thing to consider is when you strain a muscle, it heals “shorter.” It’s a lot like if you tear a rubber band then tie it back together. It is still a functional rubber band, it just can’t stretch as long as it used to. The scar tissue that forms has little to no elastic properties. This makes it more likely to strain the muscle again (usually just above or below the initial injury sight). It can be a very frustrating process. In the case of a strain, the best thing to do is take it slowly and lightly stretch the area (never to the point of pain). You will likely gain more benefit from stretching after a workout if you are stretching to gain length.
That being said, there is no way to tell if it is a muscle strain through the computer. If it has been bothering you for this long, it is a good idea to hold your appointment…is it with an ortho???
Man, I thought I wrote this question myself. I have had the identical problem on and off for three years. Always the same leg, and exactly where you describe. I have had it cramp up at the strangest times-walking to the store, swimming, night, etc… A few times it has been so painful that I was out for 2-3 weeks. When it first occured I thought it was a basic cramp. I constatnly stretched it-but I was of the old mind set of deep painful stretches. I actually heard it pop when I was stretching on some stairs and I was down for quite a while. It has not been the same since. I believe I had a small tear that I made a lot worse and I usually can not keep myself from going out to hard after I have felt good for awhile. I use the stick every night, try to stretch a lot more controlled, but it still comes up if I push myself at all. FRUSTRATING is not a strong enough word. Anyway I will be curious to know what your sports medicine guy says. As a side note-does anyone know wat exam would show an old muscle tear-MRI, xray, ultra sound, etc?
Mri’s will show muscle tears, but most clinics make you get x-ray’s before anything else as per protocol. US can show it depending on the severity of the injury.
I hate missing this much training time. Biking is my strength, so in order to drop my times for this year I wanted a solid run base. That does not seem to be happening. Oh well, I guess there is always swimming. I suck at that too. Unfortunately, it is only 10% of the day.