![\"Soleus](\"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/soleus.bmp\" "\\"soleus\\"")
<\/p>\nWell, I have become somewhat of a runner in the past 2 years.\u00a0 I have run two half marathons and have been training for a third.\u00a0 That is until my right lower leg has gotten in the way.\u00a0 In May,\u00a0I ran 1:40:08 at The Flying Pig Half in Cinci (tons of hills).\u00a0 Not bad for a 184 pound former football player, right?\u00a0 My goal was to crush that time in Columbus on 10\/18.<\/p>\n
About 5 weeks ago I felt intense pain near the medial head\u00a0of my right calf during the end of a 4.5 mile run.\u00a0 I iced immediately afterward, but I knew something was wrong.\u00a0 I had to take about\u00a010 days off from running.\u00a0 I had recently made it back to 4-5 days per week running and thought all was fine.\u00a0 I even completed an 8 mile run in 60 minutes without incident two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
But alas, the pain returned last week on a 10 mile run.\u00a0 Only 2 miles into it\u00a0I felt horrific sharp pain just below the calf.\u00a0 I had to hobble back to my car.\u00a0 This is a frustrating and defeating experience\u00a0to be sure. \u00a0While I suspected a small medial head gastroc (calf) tear, I wanted to get my friend and orthopedic surgeon’s\u00a0medical opinion.\u00a0 So, I went and saw the man I send all\u00a0my hurt athletes to yesterday.\u00a0 I wanted him to confirm that my achilles tendon was indeed OK.\u00a0 That he did.\u00a0 Whew!!\u00a0 What a relief.\u00a0 X-Rays revealed no stress fractures either.<\/p>\n
We talked and decided I would wear a heel lift to off load the calf for a short while and try to run in the half on 10\/18.\u00a0 As I continued to marvel at my scenario today, I began testing my leg and thinking, “Why can I do a single leg calf raise and single leg hop without pain if my calf is injured?”<\/p>\n
Then the light bulb went on.\u00a0 It dawned on me the pain was deeper and perhaps just below the calf.\u00a0 The thing that hurts the most is descending stairs.\u00a0 Of course!\u00a0 The injury (or strain if you will) is of the soleus, a smaller muscle deep to the calf and responsible for assisting the calf with push-off and preventing excessive dorsiflexion (foot moving toward to head)\u00a0of the foot with gait.<\/p>\n
You see the pain is almost non-existent when my knee is straight.\u00a0 But, once the knee bends and I transfer weight forward over the foot I feel significant pain\/weakness.\u00a0 Yes, the soleus is not quite right.\u00a0 The calf is less responsible for controlling the body weight as the knee bends which makes sense to me based on the symptoms.\u00a0 I can honestly say I am not sure I have treated anyone with a soleus strain.<\/p>\n
See the soleus in red below:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, what is the course of rehab?\u00a0 Cross training on the elliptical this week and then gradual integration of running again.\u00a0 The real challenge for the soleus occurs at heel strike to foot flat as it works to slow the dorsiflexion down and take all the weight of the body during single leg support.\u00a0 Ouch!!<\/p>\n
The good news is my tendon is fine.\u00a0 The bad news is that the half marathon involves so many steps it may become an endurance based issue.\u00a0 I will be adding knee bent stretching, single leg calf raises (straight and bent knee), anterior reaches, step downs and\u00a0lunges into the program as pain allows this week.<\/p>\n
So, for all the runners out there keep in mind pain around the calf may actually be related to a soleus strain.\u00a0 Identifying whther the pain occurs mostly with a straight or bent knee will be key in finding the tissue at fault.\u00a0 The two may be linked as I had a bad medial calf tear many years ago.<\/p>\n
The take home message is listen to the body and develop the right strategies to maximize recovery and rehab.\u00a0 Hopefully,\u00a0I will still hit that goal on 10\/18.\u00a0 Then, perhaps I will take a short hiatus from distance running until 2010 to allow it to heal 100%.<\/p>\n
Have questions and want answers to your sports training issues or injuries?\u00a0 Let me know and I will attempt to answer them as part of my blog posts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, I have become somewhat of a runner in the past 2 years.\u00a0 I have run two half marathons and have been training for a third.\u00a0 That is until my right lower leg has gotten in the way.\u00a0 In May,\u00a0I ran 1:40:08 at The Flying Pig Half in Cinci (tons of hills).\u00a0 Not bad for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rehab","category-running","category-training"],"yoast_head":"\n