The last few runs my right lower calf area has felt very tight after about two miles into the run. Does this sound like a stretching problem to you guys or am I just missing something? By the way it feels better after a couple of days, but it hinders any long run attempts.
If you do typical "wall stretches", you'll stretch your gastrocnemius (upper, bulgy part of your calf), but you'll likely miss your soleus (which is the smaller of the two calf muscles, connects underneath the gastroc and attaches to the achilles tendon). Google "soleus stretch" and you'll get a ton of descriptions/pictures on how to do this.
But, if you've been doing this stretch, then I have no clue.
If you do typical "wall stretches", you'll stretch your gastrocnemius (upper, bulgy part of your calf), but you'll likely miss your soleus (which is the smaller of the two calf muscles, connects underneath the gastroc and attaches to the achilles tendon). Google "soleus stretch" and you'll get a ton of descriptions/pictures on how to do this.
But, if you've been doing this stretch, then I have no clue.
Wow, that made a big difference. I never knew about that stretch for that specific area. Not sure if that is the fix but that stretch made that specific area feel better, so you hit the nail on the head. Thank you
Just an add on. I ran 4 miles today and my calf did get a bit tight again but not till after my 3rd mile and itwas very mild. So the stretching definitely helped immensly, thanks again.
Thanks for the post! I've just started to run into this problem (though my runs are much shorter at this point). I went through the excersizes and my claves feel better already!