I’ve just strained my calf for the 7th time in the last 12 months, hoping someone is able to give some insight on how I may be able to get back to running without regularly getting injured.
I’ve regularly gotten calf strains over the past 6 or 7 years, but the last 18 months this has dramatically increased. In the past I would do high mileage and plenty of intervals/tempo runs before getting hurt. I don’t think I’ve done an interval session in the past year. I’ll gradually build up at an easy pace and then if I’m lucky i’ll last a month or two before straining it again.
Am I just getting old (i’m mid 30’s) and have to face the fact I may never be able to consistently run again? The frustrating thing is I’ve pretty much never injured anything apart from my calves or Achilles, which gives me hope that there is something that can be fixed.
I’ve seen a few physios and did a run gait analysis at a running store. They said everything looked good, but I should work on strengthening hips, glutes etc as that may be the cause of the issue. I’ve been doing a number of exercises such clam shells, heel lifts etc which hasn’t made a noticeable difference. I recently went to another physio who noticed my hip drops when I walk and was confirmed when running on the treadmill. He told me to do similar exercises to what I was doing already, if my hips are the problem, I’m not sure what else can be done to fix this.
I read an old post about someone who had compartment syndrome, this sounds totally different to what I have going on, but made me think is there some other diagnoses that could be the cause. It doesn’t seem to make sense that suddenly I’d be unable to do low intensity and low mileage without always getting hurt.
I’ve just strained my calf for the 7th time in the last 12 months, hoping someone is able to give some insight on how I may be able to get back to running without regularly getting injured.
I’ve regularly gotten calf strains over the past 6 or 7 years, but the last 18 months this has dramatically increased. In the past I would do high mileage and plenty of intervals/tempo runs before getting hurt. I don’t think I’ve done an interval session in the past year. I’ll gradually build up at an easy pace and then if I’m lucky i’ll last a month or two before straining it again.
Am I just getting old (i’m mid 30’s) and have to face the fact I may never be able to consistently run again? The frustrating thing is I’ve pretty much never injured anything apart from my calves or Achilles, which gives me hope that there is something that can be fixed.
I’ve seen a few physios and did a run gait analysis at a running store. They said everything looked good, but I should work on strengthening hips, glutes etc as that may be the cause of the issue. I’ve been doing a number of exercises such clam shells, heel lifts etc which hasn’t made a noticeable difference. I recently went to another physio who noticed my hip drops when I walk and was confirmed when running on the treadmill. He told me to do similar exercises to what I was doing already, if my hips are the problem, I’m not sure what else can be done to fix this.
I read an old post about someone who had compartment syndrome, this sounds totally different to what I have going on, but made me think is there some other diagnoses that could be the cause. It doesn’t seem to make sense that suddenly I’d be unable to do low intensity and low mileage without always getting hurt.
I had a period of 7 years or so when I would tear my calf art least once or twice a year, only minor tears, but it would put me out for a few weeks. The physios I went to kept on treating my calf, saying that was the issue, too tight , giving me calf strengthening exercises etc but they didn’t help. It was always my right calf. Eventually I went to a recommended physio and within 5 mins he identified a tightness in my right hip flexor. As soon as I started stretching and strengthening the hip flexor the problem went away, My last tear was probably about 5 years ago. So I would say it’s not a matter of getting old or any issue with the calves, I would speculate the problem is elsewhere.
Thanks, that gives me some hope. I’m the same, it’s always been a minor strain. Hopefully the new physio I’m seeing can do a bit more work with me and get this figured out once and for all!
A key question is what does your typical run training look like leading up these strains?
Usually preparing with a lot more easy base run miles and keeping the number of hard miles low helps with this but again it depends what you were doing that didn’t work.
Experimenting with different style shoes also helps. What are you running in?
A key question is what does your typical run training look like leading up these strains?
Usually preparing with a lot more easy base run miles and keeping the number of hard miles low helps with this but again it depends what you were doing that didn’t work.
Experimenting with different style shoes also helps. What are you running in?
I’ve pretty much only done easy running over the last year. The plan has been to gradually build up to tempo’s/ intervals, but injure my calves again before I get to that stage.
I have a few pairs of shoes I wear, but the main pair has quite a big heel drop, as it’s meant to put less stress on the calves. Though I have also heard some people say minimalist is the way to go.
How many miles per week and at what pace? it does matter - odds are you have to start with less, and obviously slower. Even if that means walking.
A few years ago when just doing running I would be doing 70-80 miles a week and if I hurt my calf, i would stop running for 2 weeks and get straight back into intervals/ long runs and be fine.
Recently I’ve started at 2 miles and gradually working up. My pace would be between 8-9 min miles. My first week back might be maybe 10-12 miles
How many miles per week and at what pace? it does matter - odds are you have to start with less, and obviously slower. Even if that means walking.
A few years ago when just doing running I would be doing 70-80 miles a week and if I hurt my calf, i would stop running for 2 weeks and get straight back into intervals/ long runs and be fine.
Recently I’ve started at 2 miles and gradually working up. My pace would be between 8-9 min miles. My first week back might be maybe 10-12 miles
You def should slow it down more than that then if you’re still getting injured. 8-9 min miles might feel slow to you compared to your heyday at 80 mpw (I did that too when I was younger!) but it’s quite a stress on the body if you’re not in running condition and older on top. Heck, I race Olympic distance triathlons with a 6:30-6:36/mi run pace, and my easy day 10-12 mile run place is often at 9min/mile if I’m just running truly conversational pace. Then ramp up with less than the 10% increase per week, maybe start at 10%, but once you’re getting over 15mpw or the range where you know trouble is around the corner, cut it back to 5% or less per week increment.
I’m not a coach, so maybe someone else will chime in, but I’d do even less than that since you KNOW you’re going to get injured if you push it at all - I’d do 1 mile at a time, 10min/mile or slower, and start at 4 miles per week, and if you’re STILL itching to run, do it in with aquajogging or walking the miles.
my N=1 with big-drop sneakers isn’t good as well. Specificallly for me, the Alphafly. I love how this shoes feels, and I definitely run my fastest times in it. But I’ve become more hesitant to use it since I strained my calf in two races with it - something that NEVER happens with shoes with less drop (granted I don’t run as fast either!) Have been since racing in Endorphin pro with less drop, still fast, no calf strains.
I’m going to assume you saw your doctors about this as well - something doesn’t sound right for sure given 80mpw succesfully just 3 years ago and now you can’t even run 10 without straining your calf.
I’m not really worried about the pace, I’m just jogging at whatever feels comfortable, but you’re right maybe I should just try to go really slow.
I definitely add more than 10% a week. I can understand doing that when already running reasonable mileage, but If I’m starting at such low mileage it would take 6 months to even be getting a moderate amount of miles in.
I’m not wearing super shoes, just regular well supported ones. I might look more into what’s the ideal footwear, but I have been told in the past to aim for something with a big heel to toe drop.
I haven’t been straining my calf the first week back, it will be a few weeks, maybe 2 months if I’m lucky, but the mileage is still very low in comparison to what I’ve done in the past. I wouldn’t expect to get much help from a doctor, in my experience from mentioning things like this previously, they’ll just say visit a physio.
Sure but I’d def stay on the super conservative side and hit that 10 percent early like 18-20mpw. You should assume you are functionally rebuilding from an injury and priority isn’t on getting faster but to get not broken as you slowly ramp up.
Heck I only run 28-30mpw max now on an advanced triathlon Olympic plan so it’s not like 10 percent increases will take you long to get there.
Dude, lighten up – half your your audience is 50-54AG.
My n=1 supports the hip-flexor post above. Loosen/strengthen muscles around, and even far from, your calf. I have been shocked at how often stretching and strengthening more parts helps with problems in problem areas.
Dude, lighten up – half your your audience is 50-54AG.
My n=1 supports the hip-flexor post above. Loosen/strengthen muscles around, and even far from, your calf. I have been shocked at how often stretching and strengthening more parts helps with problems in problem areas.
Haha I know plenty of people a lot older than myself are performing at a very high level, but at the same time you see a lot of athletes bodies break down when they hit their 30’s.
I think I might need to put a bit effort into strengthening and hope that solves the issue
I was having the same problem after I turned 50. I tried everything and then I read somewhere that as we age we need more zinc in our diets. I believe the article was about a similar calf issue. I figured since nothing else was working I would try it. I found that the 50+ multi vitamin had 130% of daily zinc need so started taking them once per day. Now at 67 I haven’t had any calf issues since I started the daily vitamins.
This probably isn’t much help but I suffered a similar problem when I turned 50. I’d had about 5 years away from competitive running and returned to racing as I approach vet 50 status. I immediately started suffering calf strains. Both legs and literally every other month, I’d recover from one and the other would go. I tried lots of different things to combat it, stretching, foam rolling, making sure I was hydrated, vitamins, strength work but it made no difference. I did modify my run style (focused more on mid or heal striking - I had been very much a forefoot runner), I slowed my runs down and did virtually no intervals/track workouts. Eventually they seemed to stop and after a while, probably 12 months I started doing intervals and track workouts again…touch wood no issues in the last couple years. As I say…probably not much help!
