Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Calf Muscles Are Like Ticking Time Bombs

So a couple weeks ago when my mom was here I was telling her how relieved I have been this year to have been able to train so consistently without even a hint of the calf issues that have plagued me in the past. It has been over a year since I had any niggles in my calf and I've run easy, hard, long, uphill, downhill, in sand, etc and no problems at all. Phew!

Then last week, out of the blue, on an easy 8 miler, my calf started getting tight in an ugly familiar way... WTF? I was jogging like 9+' pace... but the feeling was too familiar and I knew better than to try to run through it... it was the kind of escalating tightness that causes a strain or a tear if you try to run through it (been there done that... twice). So I stopped. Mid run. Tried to massage it a bit but it was pretty pissed off already and had tightened up into a stubborn knot and would.not.release.

<Insert nasty swear word here>

I walked home feeling confident that I had not torn anything and just needed to do some eccentric calf dips and trigger point massage and as soon as it released I'd be fine and back to normal. But for whatever reason when my soleus triggers, the whole damn calf triggers so I just had bumpy knots all throughout the whole calf... lateral side gastroc, medial side gastroc, soleus, posterior tibialis... pick a point, any point, and it was a mangled pissed off angry knot. Amazing how fast and out of the blue that can happen.

So I've attacked this problem with the same focus I attack training.... if there is a professional to be seen about something like this I have seen him... I've tried massage, trigger point, acupuncture, rolfing, ART, ultra-sound, graston. Some of that was just ridiculously painful... My ART guy yesterday was actually encouraging me to just go ahead and drop some F-bombs... He was getting into part of my quad and just sort of felt it and muttered "Oh this is gonna suck" and he was not kidding. I think ultimately my calf problem is not a calf problem per say but a hip instability problem that is manifesting itself as a calf problem... so now I find myself setting off on a course to first alleviate the acute problem (calf) and then go after the root problem (hips). In good news I've got some awesome professionals here on my side who know what the hell they're doing so while I'm confident I'll eventually get this fixed, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated to be dealing with this again. Especially since I can't look back on my training and define a real cause to this... In the past when these calf issues have come up I could look back with my 20/20 hindsight vision and see that the track w/o followed by the tempo w/o followed by those hill sprints followed by another tempo run all in one week (or something ridiculous like that) was the cause... this time I don't feel like I could look back and see anything glaring so that frustrates me.

At this point it is definitely better but not runnable quite yet... so I'm off on yet another bike ride... At least it's a beautiful sunny day!

15 comments:

Steve said...

geez Michelle wish I could give you words of wisdom, but I can't. Hope you can do whatever your crazy workouts are soon. I know it is probably important to you.

:)))


xoxo

Beth said...

Hope it sorts itself out soon! I can understand that frustration. I have similiar hip/hip flexor problems that manifest into VERY angry hamstrings. I know you are doing all that you can to take care of it though - heal up!!

Jennifer Harrison said...

Hope it gets fixed ASAP. I have the same HIP tightness/hip flexor tightness, didn't know I had it, but after my achilles injury last year - it is a direct result of tight hips and that instability there for sure.

HOPE it disappears soon!!!

Angela and David said...

My ticking time bomb detonated before kona. I am still bitter about the timing. My PT gave me excellent hip and glute strengthening exercises which I did religiously during my pregnancy. Hopefully that pays off for me. Hope you are running soon!

Wassdoc said...

I think that sometimes our body is just talking to us. There are so many examples of leg injuries and problems leading to not being able to run for awhile, so one just focuses on biking, swimming and even water running...with good race results. I've had similar issues, some of this is just getting older (sorry about that). I actually had something similar in my calf a month ago, backed off a bit, and it ultimately went away. Good luck!

mtanner said...

I am so sorry! There is a GREAT article by Tawnee "It's all about the hips" It really is all about them! There are some good exercises/stretches. Be smart. You are!!!

Kim said...

Oh dammit. My hips have been blamed for my lower leg issues as well (one of the major culprits anyway, there are more). Check out the "How to be a Hipster" exercises at this link...they are super easy, fast, and seemed to help me.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18359&PageNum=1

I have no doubt you will jump on this issue and get it straightened out once and for all...hip , hip, hooray (stole that from the article).

Kim said...

Oh dammit. My hips have been blamed for my lower leg issues as well (one of the major culprits anyway, there are more). Check out the "How to be a Hipster" exercises at this link...they are super easy, fast, and seemed to help me.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18359&PageNum=1

I have no doubt you will jump on this issue and get it straightened out once and for all...hip , hip, hooray (stole that from the article).

Kim said...

Oh dammit. My hips have been blamed for my lower leg issues as well (one of the major culprits anyway, there are more). Check out the "How to be a Hipster" exercises at this link...they are super easy, fast, and seemed to help me.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18359&PageNum=1

I have no doubt you will jump on this issue and get it straightened out once and for all...hip , hip, hooray (stole that from the article).

Damie said...

I think you and I have this new reality where we are so rarely injured, that is really takes us aback when it happens. (you know my situation- status quo here). As Dave says, if you play sports, stuff will happen and you are not always in control. We are just so fortunate to know when to stop and maximize our good training vs. injury. Love you and hope this resolves soon. Miss you!!!!!!!

Katie said...

How frustrating! Hope you get this straighened out quick, but until then, you can swim a ton :)

Shevaun said...

Oh that sucks! Hope you recover quickly.

Ana-Maria RunTriLive said...

You know, I think that many times you can train smart and still get injured. I know that our lovely coach believes you can prevent injuries, but I think you can't always do that. Good luck, sounds like you are on your way to recovery. And how nice that you can maintain your fitness with the swimming and biking:)

Rebecca DeWire said...

It is so true that you often need to look elsewhere when injured. Plus, it is possible that the bike could be reinforcing imbalances even though your calf issue manifests on the run. It is such a mystery and I can understand your frustration when your body implodes out of nowhere. I am finally getting close to walking normal after 3 plus years.

Jackie said...

Sorry about your calf. It's a frustrating injury, I have suffered thru it myself. One thing I learned was I cannot wear flip flops. They activate my calves in a bad way. Running and flip flops and me do not get along. Just something to think about, I'm sure you live in your flip flops in Hawaii.