Constant Calfs and Hamstring strains,

I wish I had an answer for you, as I am in a similar situation. 3 serious muscle pulls/tears in one year. I've tried everything and nothing has helped.

JHeb wrote:

I wish I had an answer for you, as I am in a similar situation. 3 serious muscle pulls/tears in one year. I've tried everything and nothing has helped.

Age plus inflexibility plus extra weight

Probably accentuated by an expectation that you can jump into training again as if you were 27 yrs old and 20 lbs lighter.

Same for me. After 3 years of this, I'm focusing on other sports. Of course I could lose weight, do yoga, and work into running slowly, but nope.

yup age is an issue here..no question...but my weight is not...5 ft 7 135 lbs....

At 40 years old, after about 15 years of non-running, I decided to fire the engines back up. I started off small (4 miles every other day)and eventually worked up to about 50-55 MPW. Over the past 4 years of my "come-back" I have had this calf injury 15-20 times. Sometimes on the left calf, other times on the right. By the way, each time I get one of these calf strains I am off about 2-5 weeks.

In the beginning, I got these while just doing 20 MPW of easy running. Eventually after a year or so, and several of these injuries, I was able to build up my mileage to 40-50 MPW before blowing one out. Now it seems I get these calf injuries when I am either doing over 50 MPW OR am putting in some hard efforts during the week (i.e. a 10-15 long run at a hard effort, 1 day of intervals, and a 7 mile tempo run) Sadly, it always seems to occur when I feel like I am just starting to get in great aerobic shape.

I have tried calf raises to strengthen my calfs, heel inserts, orthotics, extensive stretches, icing, and other stuff to no avail. Calf raises seem to hurt more than help and it seems that my calfs need as much rest as possible between runs, not additional exercise.

I believe that the reason for these injuries is simply that my muscles do not recover as fast as they used to. I believe this, along with my age and being sedentary for so many years, is why it happens. Fortunately, I am able to handle more miles than before but it seems that I have hit my limit. Also, since I am so "in tune" with these injuries I can feel one coming on sooner than before. Before I would keep running a mile or so once I started feeling it. Now I stop immediately. This has dramatically cut down the recovery time.

My only solution at this point is to cross-train a couple times a week instead of run as well as lower the intensity. At this point this seems to be my best option unless someone has any better ideas ??

When you get one of these injuries you must stop running and only resume when there is ZERO pain. You must push deep into your calf to see if the pain is 100% gone. When it is, wait an additional 2 days then run. Start off with 2-3 miles every other day for a few days and then slowly increase from there.

Lastly, I have found that the Elliptical is a good exercise to cross-train on when you have this injury.

Good luck

Thanks for the feedback.Wish I could find the critical problem thats brings this on.I'am so damn sick of it.Thanks again

I have also had calf problems for over 30 years.

I'm now in my 50's. I was good for 2-3 good calf

pulls a year. I tried stretching, ice, foam roller,

massage ball, the stick...you name it. Then I came

across this website. Google no muscle strain and

you should come across it. Also, google calf attack.

Both sites have some good info. Good luck!

John Parker article was very accurate.Munchos gracias