Running and sore calf muscle

[ROSSinHD]

4 years ago I was running a few 10k races and did a half marathon, never serious about it didnt have decent gear and if I am honest before the half marathon and the 10ks whilst everyone was warming up I was having a cig and a red bull, despite all this I nailed each run in pretty decent times.

I then pretty much stopped running until 3 weeks ago when I was roped into a 5k leg of the local marathon.

My training (if you can call it that) was a 2.38K run, a 3.22k run, a 4.51k run and a 5k run.

Up until the 5k run I was in normal ankle socks and Air Max Zero shoes so nothing special. I then picked up some Asic Gel Nimbus 20 in the sale on a whim on the basis they seemed to get good reviews and I wanted to get back into running having now entered a half marathon next June, also picked up some more miles socks.

Went out on the 5k training run and 2.5k in got a pain in my right calf, felt like cramp but I stupidly carried on to 5k. That was last Monday. Today at the marathon leg which was 5K I got 1K in and bang, pain in the right calf, pretty much felt hard like concrete. Not wanting to let the team down I continued to the end in 29.55 which I was happy with.

Now what Do you runners think is causing the calf pain. Could it be wrong shoes, not warming up, going from 0k to 5k to fast in terms of build up. I am loving getting out for runs now but am now nervious of not only getting hte pain but potentially causing some real damage.

Thanks

[anonymous-user]

In the 4 years that you didn’t run, did you smoke and drink red bull?

[CarlosFandango11]

ROSSinHD said:

Now what Do you runners think is causing the calf pain. Could it be wrong shoes, not warming up, going from 0k to 5k to fast in terms of build up. I am loving getting out for runs now but am now nervious of not only getting hte pain but potentially causing some real damage.

Thanks

Lack of mobility?

I’m trying to get back into running after a few years off and have been struggling with my calves. My physio thinks is due to my lack of mobility and I’m doing lots of stretching to improve it.

[ian in lancs]

Typical aches and pains of a new runner. Body adjusting to new demands placed on it. Plenty of stretching required. Warm-up, say 0.5k, stretch, complete run and post-run stretch.

[gareth h]

ian in lancs said:

Typical aches and pains of a new runner. Body adjusting to new demands placed on it. Plenty of stretching required. Warm-up, say 0.5k, stretch, complete run and post-run stretch.

And give your body a little time to recover between runs until it has adapted.

[RobM77]

This could have been any number of things. The most likely is probably that you pushed harder because it was a race. Even without knowing it, it's easy to get dragged along faster than your body is used to. Aches and pains are normal with running, especially if you race without much training. As above, it's best to run regularly, always warm up beforehand and warm down and stretch afterwards, and always increase speed or distance gradually. Take it easy for a while to help recovery too.

If you want a proper diagnosis and some stretches to do as well as exercises to help prevent this happening in the future, then visit a good sports physiotherapist.