Disaster - sore calf

[haggis14]

Began my wk5 day 1 run and everything going great until the middle of the second 5min run and I had to pull up as had a really sore pain in my right calf. Really annoyed as my breathing was going great. How long do I have to rest it, please.

[dottiemay Graduate]

As long as it takes! Make sure you rest it, RICE is the key. When you feel that it's loosened up a bit, try some very short, very slow runs to test it out.

It happened to me last year - it was so tight I even had trouble walking back home and if I recall it took about a week of rest and another week of short, slow runs before I resumed. Even then, I took it really steadily and cut some runs short until I was certain I wasn't doing any damage.

It is annoying and tough when you've come so far, but a couple of weeks now is much better than a couple of months down the line.

[Far2Fat4ThatDress Graduate in reply to dottiemay]

I thought I had shin splints when I did hill training five weeks ago so rested for just over three weeks. Last week I decided that even though my left leg was still a bit sore I would start again (whilst on holiday on a flat terrain) from the beginning of C25K despite being a 5K graduate and I was fine but just a bit achy. When I got back home it is, unfortunately, all slopes and hills and after my run (week 3 day 1) my leg was so painful that I had an osteopath look at it and she says that because my left leg is slightly longer than my right I have, in effect, been running on a camber and the lower half of my calf is swollen and bruised. After being bashed about I was told to do simple calf stretches and it will eventually sort itself out. Listen to your body and don't do what it doesn't want to do.