All of this run training is catching up to me and I am starting to feel some aches and pains. I am really hoping that the aches go away quickly and don’t turn into full blown injury. Right now, it is just soreness and not debilitating.
On Monday, as I finished my run, my right calf began to hurt. It really didn’t affect my run and I actually had a great run despite the pain. I finished 7 miles with 7:49 pace. I even had a final mile of 7:16. My calf just feels really tight – like after getting cramp. I can walk pretty much pain free. It is at its worse climbing stairs when I have all my weight on the one foot and even then it isn’t excruciating by any means.
I took Tuesday off from running per my marathon training schedule. I did spend an hour on the trainer which seemed to help stretch out my calf. I also did some stretching and core training. I stuck to only upper body work with the weights to give the legs a rest.
I woke up Wednesday almost pain free. It was still lingering, but much better. My 6 mile run went fairly well. I took it nice and easy. I had a little bit of tightness at the beginning of the run, but it was nearly gone by the time I finished my run.
Unfortunately, though, my calf tightened right back up about an hour after my run.
So, here I sit, finishing up some work while I ice my calf and hope that it heals quickly. I’ve got 21 miles on the schedule for Friday and really don’t want to have to miss it.
4 comments
1 ping
Bret says:
February 11, 2010 at 9:16 am (UTC -5 )
I have the same issue this week. I picked up my milage volume and the first thing that happened was a tight left calf. Now the big question – would we gain more by grinding out the long run for the weekend, or by taking a days rest to completely heal the calf?
lindsay says:
February 11, 2010 at 9:58 am (UTC -5 )
:-/ hope your calf is feeling better and loosening up. stretch, ice, heat, roll/stick? maybe take today off and then see how it goes friday, knowing you may not get the full 21 in?
good luck. sending healing vibes your way!
Krista says:
February 11, 2010 at 10:15 am (UTC -5 )
I hope everything starts feeling better soon. I would highly recommend a foam roller – they are great for getting the kinks out. No Meat Athlete did a great post about this with all the exercises you do: http://www.nomeatathlete.com/foam-rolling/
jon gilchrist says:
February 11, 2010 at 12:43 pm (UTC -5 )
take care of that calf. And yeah…if you arent getting on that foam roller…you probably should…
Ironman By Thirty » Blog Archive » Pain Free for 21 Miles says:
February 12, 2010 at 7:41 pm (UTC -5 )
[...] to everyone who expressed concern, gave advice, and sent “good vibes” my way on overcoming my calf pain. The general consensus was to foam roll, ice and rest, so I did a little of everything. [...]