Following my Saturday long run, I had this knotted crampy feeling in in my inner thigh muscle on my right leg. The calf was also tight. It felt fine during the run, but only hurt afterward.
I did spinning on Sunday, but that didn’t help at all. I will often loosen up the sore muscles. Karate class Sunday night seemed to loosed it up for a while, but later it seemed to hurta little worse.
Last night I had aikido class. Aikido class will also often loosen my sore muscles. At the beginning of class it was sore, but at the end of class it felt much better. I was hoping it would start hurting later like after karate class.
Last night I was scheduled to run intervals. I was a little leery about how my leg would react. I decided to start and just see how it went. My right calf was still tight, but the thigh felt better. It was still a little sore. I ran 1 mile warmup at 10:00 pace. I would have liked to have run 2 miles, but I was stilll worried about the leg. Also, I got a late start due to running a couple errands after aikido class. The calf seemed to relax some during the warmup. The came the intervals. I was scheduled to run 2 sets of 6 x 400m (quarter mile) intervals at 5:48 minute/mile pace. I ran the first one, and the leg felt okay. I started plugging away at them. Soon I was finished. No problems with the leg. I ran my 1 mile cooldown (10:00 pace).
Today my leg feels much better. It is stil a little sore if I rub it. Like a deep bruise. The calf is still a little sore too. But it seems relaxed as well. It like I had a prolonged cramp or something. But I am sure it will get better now.
Ahh yes, the sore calf. I am very familiar with that ache.
How are you landing on your feet? I started to focus on taking smaller steps while running, and on landing with the whole foot on the ground and pushing off with the calves. The result? No more sore calves! Icy Hot the night before is also a life saver!!
Comment by Chris Regnery — January 20, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
Also, I forgot to add, stretching your calves too much before running can actually make them more prone to injury!
http://www.growstronger.com
Comment by Chris Regnery — January 20, 2008 @ 3:48 pm
The sore calf was not a normal thing, so I am not too concerned. My running form sucks. I land on my heel too much. I am working on improving my form to become more efficient. I should probably land more on my mid-foot or the ball of the foot depending who you listen to. I don’t usually do much stretching before running unless I have already been experiencing pain somewhere.
I don’t tend to use Icy Hot or Biofreese, or Ben Gay or any of that. They have never seemed to help much at all.
Thanks,
RJ
Comment by Rob — January 21, 2008 @ 11:54 am