Calf muscle strain/pain

[Joanna_d1977]

Been running for the last few months after having a baby and losing nearly 4 stone with sw,

Around 3-4 months ago my whilst running with a beginners running group my calf muscle tightens giving me excruciating pain it was so painful as if the muscles had locked and I ended up having to walk back to the car

I've been having a muscle medic working on it I got it sorted I started back running from basics 1mile -2 building up to 4+ miles around 2 months ago

But Whilst doing the parkrun yesterday I got to 1 mile and it went again I've got a feeling because I was pushing myself that this has caused it to go again at one point when I checked my mile was 10.35 usually I'm 12-14mins

also I'm not very good at drinking water it's one of my downfalls

At the moment I'm icing it and taking ibrupofen and my usual vitamins which are magnesium b6 complex and calcium

I hate this pain but don't understand why it's happening any advise greatly received

Thanks

[Millsie-J Graduate]

Hi, sorry to hear this. I hope you can get it sorted soon!

Are you warming up well? Also have you tried including some pre run dynamic stretches into your pre run routine?

The medic who helped previously may have advised on what the specific problem was. Was there also advice on how to avoid this and have you taken on that advice?

Good luck in getting this sorted.

[Joanna_d1977 in reply to Millsie-J]

Yes muscle medic showed me the dynamic stretches I should be doing but I only did ones I could do whilst waiting to start I think next time I'm going to do the one where I run and touch the floor for a few minutes (I usually do this one before I'm going out the door ) I just didn't want to do them with everyone watching ;( big mistaken

I've had it on a bag of stir fry and it's feeling at least 60% better

Muscle medic says it was cos I started my runs from walking 1-6 miles to running over 3 miles and muscle couldn't cope I needed to start at 1 mile at a time

[Millsie-J Graduate in reply to Joanna_d1977]

No one at parkrun will bat an eyelid at someone taking care of their body by warming up, in fact they will be impressed! Also depending how far you travel, you can do some warm up at home if it helps.

I'm afraid it seems there are no short cuts to maintaining running fitness. I have recently returned from the IC myself and now have a full range of warm ups, post run stretches and strengthening exercises I am trying to be disciplined with. I have been building my distance very slowly over the past few weeks and wont be hitting parkrun for my next 5k until Christmas eve. I started with walk/run too, and am now transitioning to more running than walking, but still shorter distances.

Hope you see some improvement soon.

[Joanna_d1977 in reply to Millsie-J]

Thank you I have to drive to the park run but there is a pathway down which is where I could do some warmups also the running group I'm with are also usually there so I could ask them to do some dynamic warm ups as well

[davelinks Graduate]

healthyliving.azcentral.com...

[Joanna_d1977 in reply to davelinks]

Thank you for this I've had a look and I think I started off way to fast I should have gone with what I feel comfortable with and I'm not hydrating myself enuf so think I need to get on top of that to

Ice is helping lots so I'll just rest till the end of the week and then do a 1 mile test run

[misswobble Graduate]

Ice is great so stick with that. I injured my calf. it came on suddenly and without warning well into a run. I rested for a whole week before trying again. Pulled up almost immediately. I had to take a month off. I was in the final stages of training for a 10 mile race! Resting it did the trick, and on race day it was fine. It could be a micro tear which needs time to heal and repair

I warm up in the house just doing cardio, before heading out for the brisk, warm up walk. you can spend longer on the walk if needs be. I am so slow to warm up so I often walk for 10 minutes