Week 6 from injury. Managed 3 consecutive runs (not every day), pain free finally and boom, just 25 mins into a very easy run (as they all have been), the old sol has complained. She has a loud voice and it shits me. Two days ago got up to an hour easy running pain free. Few days later 25 mins. It makes little sense.
Physio, strength training, accupuncture, it is an absolute bitch to get right.
Any success stories on this turd of a muscle would be good to hear 😩
I’m about 6-7 years post soleus tear at Du Nats in St. Paul. Re-injured it again last Dec. in XC Nats, this time out 2 full months. It s*cks–never did regain the strength I had before 2015 from that initial injury. Must be some scar tissue that was left over & always would feel it on long upper end efforts…it did also alter my run gait and still has an effect on GCT according to my Stryd power meter. Dunno what to tell you, I’m not a doctor but I play one on TV… 
I have never had an injury like this before. Or any real injury. My posterior chain is tight so I been working on stretching that out as well. I’ll try anything.
I don’t have scar tissue according to the physio and he says it’s mild but gosh darn, this blows.
Your reply confirms what a turd this muscle is
I have never had an injury like this before. Or any real injury. My posterior chain is tight so I been working on stretching that out as well. I’ll try anything.
I don’t have scar tissue according to the physio and he says it’s mild but gosh darn, this blows.
Your reply confirms what a turd this muscle is
I am old and have seemingly had every injury in the book (not true, yet, but)…
Stuff always takes longer to heal than you’d think/hope. Think of a nasty case of Road rash, and how long it takes to really get that “solid.”
Trying to be positive here from a guy who’s had a few cases of calf heart attack…
Hard as it seems…
Enjoy the journey
No specific answer but I have a bad soleus on my left leg. I had an acute overuse injury about a year ago from ramping mileage too quickly with a shoe that had too much support. I had about 2 months where I got rid of that acute injury but I still have a chronic issue where it gets tight and sore easily. Since it’s not necessarily painful I’ve trained through it. Since multiple PT and multiple treatments but nothing has solved it yet.
I’m in aus, I have a 70.3 in 10 weeks 😩
.
Are you sure it’s the soleus?
I’ve had issues in what I thought was the soleus, but found out it was the shin bone. Slight bone stress. I thought it was my soleus because it likely got inflamed from compensating for the shin bone. My shin bone would get this mushy fluid and it was likely some shin splint+bone stress. I had to take a month off running last year. This year, I was able to heal it in about 2 weeks with dry needling and hard physio (no running, just cycle/swim).
Week 6 from injury. Managed 3 consecutive runs (not every day), pain free finally and boom, just 25 mins into a very easy run (as they all have been), the old sol has complained. She has a loud voice and it shits me. Two days ago got up to an hour easy running pain free. Few days later 25 mins. It makes little sense.
Physio, strength training, accupuncture, it is an absolute bitch to get right.
Any success stories on this turd of a muscle would be good to hear 😩
Does it feel like you pulled the muscle/tore a muscle fiber (i.e. sudden sharp pain)? That’s what it was like in my case. Out of the blue, first in one leg, rehabbed that, then in the other leg, seemingly without any good reason. On recommendation by an orthopedic/sports doc, I switched to cushioned shoes (Hoka) and, most importantly, compression socks. Haven’t had problems with the calfs since (2+ years and counting; knock on wood!).
Getting old sucks.
If I understand your post correctly, you were off running for 4-5 weeks
(From a muscle strain…probably grade 2 by USA standards).
Then on your second or third run back, you ran for an hour continuously.
And you’re wondering why, on the run after this hour run, you got injured.
If that’s correct, you got injured because you came back to running far to aggressively. And overstressed an only partially healed muscle.
(Your soleus was still fatigued from the hour run when you ran again two days later, so it wasn’t “Only 25 minutes into a run”)
Going from no running and building up to an hour in a handful of runs is very quick, and almost always too quick.
Sounds like you don’t have much of an injury history and this is your first rodeo.
Build back much slower next time. Good luck.
No, off running maybe a week then slow build. All treadmill saucony endorphin shift big thick clunky shoes. It’s only the past week I have tried outside.
I started at like 10 mins early on, then up to 20, then 30 then 40-45. Every now and again if there was a twinge I would shut it down. I finally got to an hour the other day, outside, without feeling any niggle. That’s the third time I have been able to do that distance but first outside. Day off after, then next day today was trying for 50 and made it to the 25mins. You may be correct though as I did do my usual strength training yesterday as well on my run day off, so maybe there was just enough fatigue there to say nope.
As for the other posts, the physio swears black and blue it’s the soleos, it def feels posterior. And yep I always wear a compression sock as dorky as it looks lol.
It’s funny as I did both of them within minutes of each other (my own fault, hill repeats at speed and was too much at the time), but my right has totally healed and feels good, the left is hanging on.
The introduction of running outside changes the stress overall stress of a 60 minute run (any length really).
And the strength training between the runs will also put more stress on the muscle. I assume it was not fresh enough heading into your most recent run.
They are not a massively strong muscle, and depending on your gait, they can have a lot of force going through them. Even on easy runs.
On your next round coming back into running, I’d suggest you do a bit more outside running and try to put more space between runs over 40ish minutes
.
Other than that, it sounds like you were following the program and you’re in a tough situation.
Treadmill on the recovery can inhibit it’s strength by the sounds ?
Cheers for that I’ll keep at it
I had a calf injury that continued to hurt, years ago. Was really frustrating as I was doing everything you are doing……strength training, compression socks, slow return to running, etc…. Finally saw a sports med doc and he did an ultrasound of the area and found I had a partial tear of my Achilles’ tendon right near the musculotendon border. Took me three months before I could run again
gordo byrne has been talking about this lately:
https://feelthebyrn.blog/2022/09/26/bomber-calves-and-hamstrings/
maybe that’ll help?
.
Did you change your shoes before you were first injured?
I would also like nominate the psoas as worst muscle to rehabilitate!
Only a few runs In the asics metaspeed, however I’m sure it was hill repeats , my third round of it in two weeks, with speed repeats on the way up.
And thanks Mike I’ll look at the link !
Stuff always takes longer to heal than you’d think/hope.
https://dumbrunner.com/training-news/2020/12/2/local-runner-pretty-sure-injury-has-healed-by-now
The injury is either plantar fasciitis or a stress fracture, Anish believes, or possibly both. The longtime runner has not visited a physician for a diagnosis and has been treating herself at home with a mix of ibuprofen, essential oils, and stretching.
“I can walk on it pretty much normally,†she reasoned as she put on her running shoes, “and it’s been a full day since I’ve felt that shooting pain.â€
“It’s fine.â€
Shortly afterward, sources said, Anish departed for a three-mile loop. At last report, she was spotted about a half-mile from her home, sitting on a bench and rubbing her foot.
Welllllll not quite same same. Appreciate the humour tho.
Any success stories on this turd of a muscle would be good to hear 😩
Rest. Longer than 6 weeks.
And a piriformis is a worse muscle to rehab.
Have heard rest isn’t actually supposed to improve it ? As in total rest ? It needs movement and exercise and even some return to running ? I have a feeling a half Ironman in 10 weeks isn’t gonna look great if I don’t get healing though.
Also have heard the piriformis is nasty. Another one of those ‘hanger-on’ injuries