Calf muscle aches

Over the last couple of months I have increased my mileage and was until a couple of weeks ago up to eight miles fairly easily. Over the last couple of weeks I have not been able to get anywhere near this distance, I get to about a mile and start to experience very painful calf muscles and ultimately have to stop. Has anyone experienced such pain? Can anyone recommend anything I should be doing to relieve and stop this?

Hi Jon,

Pain in the calfs I have experienced.

First a number of questions,

Are you a new runner?
Have you got the right shoes?
Do you stretch before/after running?
What time of day do you go running?
How hard are you running?
Is the pain in the lower or upper calf?
How often do you run?
Do you do any other excercise?

Hopefully you're a new runner in the wrong or old trainers who doesn't stretch much.
In which case, total rest for 4 days, 7 days of walking for 30 mins followed by some calf stretches & get some new trainers from a specialist running shop. After 10 days you should be able to run again, starting slowly & building in peed & distance slowly.

You could allways visit your GP who will konw a lot more about it than me.

Best of luck

PM

Yeah, I guess i am a new runner, particularly at longer distances, I have recently purchased a new pair of good trainers. I probably don't stretch as much as I should, I have laid off the running recently due to the pain but its well frustrating. Thanks for your advice, i think i've probably overdone it recently and pushed myself too hard too soon.

Cheers
Jon

Jonathon,
Never stretch without warming up properly first.