I'm 61 yrs old a took up sprint triathlons just before I turned 59. Did sports before but never any endurance sports. It was a real struggle at first but this year I have reached the 'decent' level for all 3 disciplines. Having struggled through hamstring strains, plantar fasciitis, hip pains, then hamstring strain again, I learned to do flexibility and strength exercises almost daily.
These exercises do not seem to address my newest difficulty - moderate to extreme soreness in both lower calf muscles. I trace it back to Feb 24 when I ran a 10k race at close to 50 minutes flat. Not a super time but a fast pace for me since I had only run 5k's previously and only a handful of them - my best 5k pace has been 7:30/mile.
I was ok after the 10k race but it was 2 weeks before a sprint triathlon for which I had been training for almost 2 years! There was some soreness in workouts but I brushed it aside and was very happy to meet my goal on triathlon day
(March 10
) - ie 5 minutes better than last year. I over did the bike so my 5k time was very slow
(my calves were on the verge of spasm the whole 5k run
) but the bike time was good enough to compensate.
Then I had a track and swim competition the following week in which I ran the 400 and 1500 meter races. Good times and felt fine. At the end of the track meet I ran a leg in a 4 x 100 relay and slightly pulled my right hamstring - big mistake to sprint when tired.
So I rested 4 days and tried to jog 5 miles last Friday
(9:00'/mile pace
). At 4 miles both of my lower calves were so sore I had to walk back to my car.
Sure sounds like over-training - no? It hurts to run and cycle and even swim if I do much over 1000 yards. So should I just swim 1000 yards 2 or 3 times per week until the soreness is gone?
Can I do any strength training to help - it sure helped my hip soreness and even my hamstrings but this seems to be aggravated directly by my legs impacting the hard asphalt. Today I thought I could run through the pain but after a quarter mile that seemed stupid.
Naps on the weekend? Advil? Is there a name for this condition?
My next Tri is 2nd week of May. I hate losing training time to an injury!!