calf pain after 20 weeks of slow build..any advice?

[shawshank]

I posted in mileage & have a blog that documents my slow build. I made a mistake the week before the calf injury/incident. I have also been down this road before.

I lowered my run times from 55/55/65 down to 35 mins (stopped after calf pain), waited 3 days when pain was gone & was only able to go for 29 mins.

In my experience, these drops are a sign of growing potential for injury. So i'm trying to up the cross training (especially ones that strengthen my legs/core like the 100 ups challenge), swim, & do yoga & keep my fingers crossed.

Since waiting for the pain is not a good indicator, I am going to wait at least a week, then lower down to 25 mins & wait 3 days between runs (at a very slow pace) to make sure the calf pain is abating.

Any other advice from my BF peepe? Tx! s/s.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Post in the Ask the Docs

Post in the Ask the Docs forum, and good luck!

 

[shawshank]

I did.  and tx again TJ! 

I did. and tx again TJ! s/s.

 

[JosephTree]

Funny, but now that you

Funny, but now that you mention it, that's just about when my worst calf pains occurred. Sudden acute pain in one (I can't remember which) calf even stopped my run and had me hobbling home. I remember the exact spot on the trail where I let out a yelp of shock and pain. I rested a few days and had one recurrance before I progressed past it. What I guessed was that I was experiencing a critical step in my body's transition to a new and more BF style form. After that it's all been gravy!

 

[Jonny00GT]

Where in the calf is it?  How

Where in the calf is it? How would you describe the pain? If you've ever pulled a muscle, you know the difference between a warning and too late. Are you stretching or massaging? I've experience pain in my calf while running only to have it abate when I loostened up and relaxed.

Let us know what you figure out.

-Jonny

 

[shawshank]

Joseph, I hope you are

Joseph, I hope you are right. I thought I was over the hump. Maybe I was pushing myself a bit too hard & speeding up. Could be the repetition of a short indoor track (hard smooth surface) due to weather. Or the travel that has been time consuming & a drain on my energy.

I know this is a constant process of evaluation & listening to your body. So I will count this as another lesson & move on from here.

I hope I can keep up my slow build & will keep you posted (on my blog).

s/s.

 

[shawshank]

Jonny, The pain was a dull

Jonny,



The pain was a dull ache during the run that got worse....kind of like a muscle that was pulled. [[I have had this happen before but just slowed down & been able to complete my BFR. This time I knew that I would not be able to finish the BFR because it just felt different & I had been sore & achy leading up to this BFR.]] Then a twinge & then a shooting pain when I walked. I tried to stretch it out, but that didn't work. The calf pain felt almost exactly the same as the calf pain I experienced when I first started BFR....way back in the first weeks.

I used a roller 2x a day the first few days & now the pain is gone. I've also been doing yoga daily to stretch out my calves (& strengthen my core).

I've been down this road before when I used to wear shoes. I take a few extra days off & then try again & have to stop. I take a few more days off & then try again & I can run/jog a shorter amount of time than the first time.

To me, that is a major warning sign.

I am eager to get back at it by slowing down & drastically cutting back the time. I figured 35 mins was a good place to start given what I had built up to. But I will probably try for 30 mins very slow. Concentrating on relaxing my feet/calves & making sure my heel kisses the ground so I am not placing too much stress on my calves.

tx for asking! s/s.

 

[NickW]

Hey Shawshank, just a

Hey Shawshank, just a thought. Back maybe 6 months ago, I pulled or tore a calf muscle. I was advised to stretch, rest, ice, and compression. I would take a week off from running and would feel great so I would stretch and then go try running again and bam, the pain would come back horribly bad. So I would go home, stretch and do everything else all over again. This went on for two months and then the Sock Doc on here advised me to stop stretching. This seems like a silly thing and counter intuitive, but within a week I was running again and have had no problems or recurrences since. Apparently when you stretch an injury it re-tears the already torn muscle fibers that are trying to heal, causing the injury to not get better. I hope it doesn't take you as long as it did me to heal from the calf injury. Good luck!

 

[Jonny00GT]

yeah, I'd ditch the

yeah, I'd ditch the stretching in favor of massage and a slow warm up. Pulling on an injured muscle(stretching) just sounds like a bad idea to me. I've stopped and rubbed my calf in the middle of a run before, but I don't stretch. A static streatch, or a hold stretch, doesn't make sense for a dynamic movement. I think a dynamic stretch like kicking at your hand or bouncing on your toes would be good though...once warm. Never stretch cold.

Hope we can all avoid the muscle pull demons!!

-Jonny