the top of my calf muscle on the side of my left leg is very sore. It is sore to the touch when i apply pressure and it is hard to walk without some pain. When I ran this morning it seemed fine though so I am guessing it is much better when it warms up.
Does it sound like it is ok to carry on running? What can i do to fix this?
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has it built up over time, or just come on after a hard run
I would reckon its Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness then.
might be worth trying a mix of ice and foam roller massage. also if its the outside of your calf could be something to do with the IT Band, so massage that too.
I have never used ice because I am not organised enough to ever have any in the house. Do you just put it in a plastic bag and put it on the sore muscle until the ice melts?
i usually use a bag of frozen peas (tesco value!), its cheap, moulds to you, and is re-freezable (just dont eat them!). They say you should wrap them in teatowel or something before putting on your skin, but i find its not cold enough, and i figure i'm not actually putting ice straight on me.
failing that, sit your legs in a cold bath for 10 mins before a hot one, works for me also!
Ahh peas sounds about right - I will buy a bag and mark them with a skull and crossbones so no one eats them Thanks for the tip!
Frozen peas are great. I had a bag of them I'd been using for ages. They were miles out of date and had probably been thawed and re-frozen about 50 times. I came home one day and my boyfriend had boiled them up and was eating them with a steak pie. I didn't tell him and he didn't notice anything.
Hahaha brilliant
It's not likely to be DOMS more than 72 hours after the session you think caused it.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness)
You might have caused a micro-tear (by doing a tempo run too soon after your half)
Have a read of these:
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/legpainandinjuries/a/calf-strain.htm
http://www.davidhays.net/running/calf_tears.html
treatment's pretty much the same as above but I would avoid any stretching for a few days - 2 weeks. I'm no doctor but I've done similar myself in the past and kept stretching which meant the soreness didn't go for a while - as soon as I stopped stretching on an osteo's advice, I healed within a short time!
Good luck - hope you mend soon