It’s starting to hurt.
(click image to see larger version)
I’m at the 10-mile mark of my Half Marathon training and this one was painful. I added a few hills and I got a twinge of pain in my right achilles and soleus muscle at about the 6-mile mark. Unfortunately, once you’re out there, the only way home is to run home or call the husband. I decided to run home and finished with a slower time (1:44) and had to give the old leg a good icing and Motrin. Luckily I’m up the next day without pain and just a little tightness. Only 3 more weeks until the Giants Race!
Nikki
Thursday, May 27, 2010Hey Nina…I was ailing with similar achilles/calf ache issues on and off in late ’08 and most of ’09. Went to a PT for help and long story short, be sure to stretch your soleus & gastoc for no less than 30 seconds per leg and do multiple reps. I thought I was doing all the right things by stretching for about 20 seconds and that is not so. PT said in order for a muscle to realize it’s in ‘stretch-mode’ you must hold it for 26 seconds. Shoot for 30 and you should be ok. Do it often–trust me, you don’t want to get to mile 11 in training and have your calf seized up. It happened to me last fall and derailed my training and goal for the Long Beach half. I was SO MAD and have learned a lesson! Good luck with the training and the half marathon.