should I run today w/ sore calves? (please help)

If it were me, I'd run today and the day after but go very very easy, like shakeout pace. Maybe you can allow the calf muscles to sort of stretch and break up scar tissue as you are running/jogging very very slowly. A simple easy run is probably the most valuable training tool for the distance runner. Then wait until you get some pop back in your leg muscles before you attempt that 20miler. Good luck

Upping my mileage and all runs in flats, noted that my calfs were getting tight and legs heavy. Did not heed my own notes and tried to bang out my 16 (12 M pace). Pulled up with calf pain at 10 and had to walk 7 home. Stilling here now with the stick trying to work it out..... sound familiar?

I guess it's too late now, but my advice would *not* be to run significantly slower than your normal 20mi pace--instead, break up that 20mi by walking for a couple of minutes, every two miles or so.

In my experience, calf soreness can generally be run through at moderate speeds, provided your gait hasn't been affected; and the walking breaks keep your gait from being affected.

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Related note: avoid doing *top-speed* work if your calves are sore. The calves are involved with bending the knee (and, when you're sprinting at top speed, the leg folds up very tightly at the knee); sore calves will make the hamstrings work too hard during sprinting, and injury can result.

Never run when you are sore. You have to be fresh for every run, or you will never get in the required quality.

There's tired calves and there's sore calves. You're going to have to figure out which is which. A few years back I attempted to man-up and run through some tight and sore calves. The popping I felt a few miles in, the subsequent limp home, and the several months of recovery taught me that maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

If you start to feel something like a burn, or compression, you are about to feel something that makes unpleasant a euphemism.

Try something and see how it feels, and if their tired they'll feel tired and your good. They tighten up, you're bad, stop. Then walk home and find yourself a physical therapist.

Mine are definitely of the sore variety, like the soreness you feel after you work a muscle that isn't used to being worked. Not so sore that I couldn't go out and run, but I just wondered whether it would be better to let them rest a day or two.

I still can't get over the fact that just 3 miles (I think it was three) of barefoot running did this to me. On the plus side, I think it shows that the barefoot running is a good way to strengthen the calves, at least for me.

Is it that your calf muscles weren't strong or that your different gait used muscle fibers that were dormant?

Personally, I would follow the above advice on taking it easy and seeing how they feel. But would in no way do 20 miles until I felt comfortable. Don't risk it.

Get you ass out the door and walk.

Screw the barefoot thing and get a pair of low profile racing flats , they will do the job when you want some leg , foot work.

Do strides on the grass barefoot , not a friking distance run !

Pull this save day by running barefoot thing out of your head , run smart , run with a decent pair of shoes.