Today was the day! 10 days after a minor calf strain, with some gentle exercise and gentle rowing in the run-up towards today, and this Sunday morning I went out for my first little, gentle 20 min jeffing run to try out me newly recovered legs.
It’s amazing how quickly minor calf strains heal but I’m still mindful of taking it slow. A sports physio appointment is in a couple of weeks time to see what else I can learn about why these minor calf strains are reoccurring when walking and what to do about them. I reckon it’s an issue of walking with long strides, having a weighted moment on outstretched legs.
It makes sense, as all my activities tend to focus on short stride lengths, including my running, which in its Japanese slow jogging way doesn’t have much longer stride lengths included. Rowing, as well, has most weight bearing phases when legs are bent. And other than that, my work is mostly desk based, which doesn’t do much to stretch those calf muscles or put weight on them in their stretched out position, unlike when you are trying to walk fast and automatically lengthening your stride. This is, as far as I can tell, also the reason for it to be called “tennis leg”.
So I reckon my gastrocnemius calf muscles feel quite challenged. But I’ve rested them, and ca 6 days in I noticed the typical blood-shot bruise appearing, indicating the internal muscle fibre tears. First few days were difficult and painful to walk, but a week in, it felt good enough to do a gentle 10 min row and my legs felt suddenly so agile again. And from there, every gentle workout felt better.
I’ll not be doing the 10k HU run in a weeks time, but I will get to 10k again, I’m sure.
In-between, waiting for me are single calf raises, stretching and more. If my guess is right, I will be needing to add strengthening exercises specifically for my gastrocnemius calf muscles.
But for now, I’ve got my small runs back, and after today’s run I loved how it made me feel all day!
Happy running, everyone!
