Calf pain - reasons

jlubkoll

Barefooters
Apr 27, 2011
124
34
28
Berlin, Germany
Despite not being a newbie i've been hit with calf pain on one(!) leg (right) again. Haven't had that in a while.

Since I never really thought about the motion of the leg and a potential cause for the pain in a calf, here are a couple thoughts - maybe some of you have better ideas.

Calf pain came 48 hours after a 10k asphalt BF training run. Speed was not too slow, at approx. 5 min/km.

The aftermath:

The 10k asphalt was on a (closed for vehicle traffic but heavy trafficed by bikers, skaters and runners) and since we drive on the right here I stayed on the right side of the road on both halfs of the run (I just turned around after 5k). In order to keep water from staying on roads they are a little bit "falling" to the right and left surface wise. When running on the right hand side of the road, the right leg always had to do a little more work in order to keep me up (the left just bent more?). That would be an explanation. The left leg is fine, no calf pain there.

So a trick in order to avoid that would likely be to either stay in the middle (if possible) or alternate between sides if possible.

Any other ideas why it would just be one leg ?

I did not have any calf pain on a 14k competition at same speed the week before, that was no asphalt though.

I do have an upcoming 10 competition on Saturday, hope that calf gets quiet by then. Couldn't run today and walking a stairway down triggers that calf pain pretty effective (as does bending the knee forward and holding the body weight).
 
JL, it does sound like the

JL, it does sound like the street's unlevelness caused this. I would avoid that area altogether if you can't run it safely either due to the muscle strain or the traffic.
 
I haven't done any long runs

I haven't done any long runs barefoot but back when I did marathon training with shoes I would run into the same thing. Doing 10 miles on the side of the road I would really notice the soreness in that leg. Both from it being further away from the ground and also from leaning in that direction which puts more weight down on that foot, stressing muscles, etc. I would alway try to run in the middle of the street or on a trail of some sort for that reason.
 
You could have developed some

You could have developed some tightness or whatever on the first leg of the run, and by the time you turned and came back you were already compensating for something and it wound up really having an effect on one leg in particular. I speak from some experience as I did a similar thing of running on a slanted surface. You can likely find it in the injury section if you look back a page or two. Initially it caused problems in both legs, but left leg calmed down quickly.. the right however was a much bigger headache. Your issue could be as simple as a strain, but that's a guess on my part.

John T.
 
If you can, rather than all

If you can, rather than all on one side type running, cross the street from time to time... like a zig zag. This ought to help by giving some relief to those areas of the body not used to being used like they have. If there are sidewalk portions use them for changes in elevation. Could be like the urban version of a trail run? I have nothing like this so I can't speak from experience... just a thought that popped into my head.

John T.
 
You could duct tape and

You could duct tape and orthotic to that downhill leg/foot. that should solve the problem ;)
 
The funny thing at the end is

The funny thing at the end is that I did run that road many many times with shoes (even relatively minimal ones, ie asics hyperspeed gt 4) and never had that problem. Likely that little softness in the shoes is enough to help mitigate the angle of the road on its outer parts.

Leg getting better, seems like i'll be ok for tomorrows likely very wet 10k asphalt in the middle of Berlin.
 
Good news!

Good news!
 
To give an update here, the

To give an update here, the calf pain came back in the middle of the competiton. Finished the 10k in pouring rain in a new pb of 45:41 barefoot (from what I could tell the only amongst the >5000 runners). Had lots of fun being completly wet and running splashing through all the puddles avoided by the other runners.

Was able to get rid of the renewed calf pain after 2 rest days through a 20k shoed run in regenerative speed (calf pain only lasted the first 3 of the 20), did nearly 10k this morning barefoot on wet trails, no calf pain at all. Apparently that only kicks in on tarmac roads, must have to do something with my form on tarmac.

Needs more work.
 
Had lots of fun being

Had lots of fun being completly wet and running splashing through all the puddles avoided by the other runners.

I love this! Sorry, but I do.