Calf muscle strain - how long till I should run again?

[amireallydoingthis]

Calling experienced (or otherwise) runners. I've sadly picked up a calf strain injury on my W2R2 last evening and am worried this will seriously damage my progress and motivation - especially so early on in the programme. It was going so well too and I was really enjoying it (surprised myself there!). Possibly shouldn't have kept on running until the end, but did at a lighter jog and rested once I got home, put ice on it and raised leg like it says.

Question now is - how long should I leave it before I run again. I'm due to complete week 2 tomorrow and am keen to keep going, but is that foolish - will I just aggrevate it. Advice please???

[Saruma Graduate]

I would rest it for a couple of days until it settles. You may also want to consider buying a foam roller - relatively cheap from Amazon. I am very injury prone, but, if I pick up a calf niggle, a bit of intensive work with the roller usually clears it up very quickly.

[Plus8 Graduate]

Our daughter is studying Physiotherapy at university so when it happened to me she was able to identify the muscle involved, there area at least two in the calf, and give me the correct exercise. Even so, I started back too early so be careful. I would give it a couple of days rest with regular stretching as well as the massaging suggested by saruma.

[amireallydoingthis Graduate]

Thanks guys, i'll leave it for tonight I think and possibly just go for a swim (with my new swim mp3 player - birthday pressie - quite excited as I find swimming so boring usually with no views to look at). I'll see how the leg feels tomorrow. Will try a bit of a massage too and see if this helps.