3/28
am tempo
10 x 100
power speed drills 3 each
epsolm salt bath at night
3/29 meet with kids
3/30- speed end
100 rope skips
med ball throws
4x120
1x100
Felt good, was tired for the last 100. ran 11.6 into wind.
hurdle drills.
from3/30-4/2 flew outta town with wife to north carolina. Man I tried to keep diet straight but boy was I jet lagged. I slept all day the next day and ate good. was bloated the entire time. I did finally get the energy to workout on the last day. THe flight back was the worst. Plane had me motion sick so once I got home, I felt better, but I was dizzy and quezzy for a day.
I tried to run when I got home, but it wasnt very good.
4/3-speed day
2x30 stand
2x30, 3x50 bs
3x20m fly 30 run up
1x100 race pattern
3xsand pit jumps
Sq-6,5,4,2
bench- 3x5
Leg curl 10.8.6
felt ok. still getting over the return trip.
4/4
tempo
15x100
abs
pushups
4/5 off kids meet
4/6 spec end
100 rope skips
med ball throws
3x50, 150 run a 50 then walk 250m and run a 150. 10 min rest. Stole this from ato.
I was feeling great. I was getting a great bounce from the track and working form. Ran all in flats.
I got to the last 20 meters of the last 150 when I felt my calf pop…I was down for the count. I had to limp back. I was like fuccccccccccccccccccck cause I was feeling excellent. Warm up went great, form was perfect and I still had this freak injury pop up outta no where.
My calf swole up a lil and I was able to walk slow the next day. I got an MRI yesterday and Im awaiting the results. IVe been doing ultrasound at home and rubbing penetrex on it every few hours. Im able to dorsi and plantar flex, but I cant do anything explosive. I feel pain when walking only during certain movements.
I hope its not too bad cause I have meets coming up non stop the next few weeks.
Now I have to keep a extra strick diet and lots of upper body weights and bike to attempt to keep weight off. Damn it man
4/7-11
Got MRi the day after injury, waiting on results.
Calf feels better. I still cant push off it, but I can walk with pain on certain movements.
IVe been doing ultra sound 2-3 times a day and rubbing lots of penetrex.
I hit the weights on 4/8 then took a few days off.
Gonna have to do a mean bike tempo and hit the weights crazy until I can run again. Im able to squat and do deads with out pain so thats a plus
4/11
am bike tempo
15min warmup
10x30sec on 30 easy
abs, 100 pushups
PM 5x5 squat and bench
225,185
Lots of ultra sound and calf stretching
Thanks… Any updates on your times…
Well GOt hurt last week so I will be missing the meet this weekend. I also missed another meet last weekend.
Got two meets in this year so far, 11.47 and the next run was 11.40. I had boo boo race patterns on both and the second meet I got a rushed warm up. I was ready to go 10.9 at those meets atleast.
Now I dont know what to expect after this injury heels. I have lost anything in the weight room so far so we will see in the next few weeks.
4/13
rope skips…dont know how many just did a alot while I coached my kids
weights
5x5 deads 225
5x5 bench 185
5x5 ghr
NOt going heavy on the weights. Im trying to move them fast so I can keep some fast twitch muscle firing.
4/14 off
Chris6878, what was the extent of the injury?
Remember you can gain strength fast but will you also lose it fast where endurance is the opposite. Your job is to play to what ever it is you are able to do and of coarse you know I am going to suggest getting in the pool for anything you are able to do there tempo wise at least.
It’s a good time to do depletions at least 1 x per week.
Do you have a stim? Not a bad time to think about getting one.
Work around the edges and leave no stone unturned.
shit.
Calves are the worst.
Having said that don’t panic.
In my opinion I would stop anything on your lower extremity pounding.
Have you got the med ball circuit? I’ve hidden it and will put it up again. This is a workout that would appeal to many of you because it’s an amazing way to maintain a lot of fitness and strength in a very useable manner.
I would also warn you to be careful of loading up too much more in the weights.
Don’t panic. You will heal but it’s going to take time if you heard a pop that’s not a strain. Even if it were a strain, a strain can be very long to heal.
Start wrapping it daily and nightly with heat and anti inflame creams ( Voltarin is widely avaiable, mix with heat ( A535), and saran and wrap lightly with tensor)
Do the pale contrast baths too. Get one or two pales at home depot for 5 bucks each. Fill with ice water and stand in it for up to 10 minutes but if it’s cold enough you won’t be able to handle 10 minutes. You don’t need to handle 10 minutes. You are trying to get a contrast going and you don’t need hot as the flush will occur when you are out of the ice bath. I suggest going up as far as possible. Try to get pales that come up to your or just past your knee.
Change your warm up to avoid all pounding completely. Be mindful that any lifting creates load on the lower joints and you need to start compensating for the fact that you are now injured plus you wish to add load which potentially slows down blood flow / restricts blood flow
Bump up your B vitamins too and clean up any dietary stuff you are able to do.
It’s somewhat classic what has happened in my opinion.
You go away on a flight ( get dehydrated and bloated)
You are away from training which would be fine if you did not allow yourself to feel like a bag of crap.
You get back and assume all is fine and without knowing it your calves where likely tight or maybe you are just retaining water or maybe you are dehydrated? Who knows and who cares but the end result is the same. Sprinters are like race cars. To run fast, sprinters need care like expensive cars. Don’t you have a fancy car? Fast and fancy cars are never inexpensive and for them to operate correctly you need special care.
I think some hot wax would also be a good idea for you Chris6878. You can buy one online for under 30 dollars I think. Wax has amazing healing properties.
I got a MRI the day after. It came back as a grade 2 strain of the lateral head of the gastrocnemius with edema in the muscle belly as well as extensive fascial plane edema around the lateral head. No tendon tear was seen and no focal hematoma. My therapist said I was lucky cause from my description or what happened he thought it was much worse.
THanks ange. Funny you mention the flight as I did feel like crap when I got back I flew back in on a sunday and I didnt do the hard workout until Wednesday 4/6/15. I felt great during the workout and I thought I was hydrated enough. I do about a gallon a day.
Since that day I have been doing ultra sound 2-3 times a day plus rubbing penetrex on my injury damn near 7 times a day. I will order the voltarin and a535 today. Ill also break out my ems and do that.
I got a calf compression sleeve in monday and have been wearing that often.
I dont think I know the med ball circuit.
I get on the contrasting also.
DO you think I should stop the squatting a deads until I heal fully?
I was able to jump rope today without pain. I also did some ABC drills after without any real pain.
I did try to push off hard at the end of the drills and I felt a small sharp pain but nothing major.
It appears to be healling fast, but im not gonna push it.
I will start sleeping with the sleeve on and also the rubs.
4/15
5x5 squats 225
bench 5x5 185
4/16
slow tempo
10x100
5x100 abs pushups between
stretching
abs
home lots of ems and ultra sound. all day
4/17
10 x100 warmup on grass
700 rope skips. maybe more. lost count
stretch abs
med ball oh x 10
med ball accel real easy x5 on grass
5x100 easy accel runs on grass with abs between.
Felt good. Im able to accel and bounce. havent tried to push real hard from start, but im able to start easy and get going.
home will be lots of ems ultra sound, penetrex rub and keeping leg wrapped. So far so good.
Ive been sleeping with leg wrapped and various rubs on it.
I would not test it like you did. Bad idea and it’s a classic way people re injure. Just my opinion.
would you continue to squat? Or do deads? I’d be doing maintenance weights and go get what you can without dealing with your calf at all. Not easy right? But that’s how we did it. Total rest. Work around the edges and gradually, progressively come back. I sure would not skip. That’s how I popped my calf and ended my running but that’s a long and boring story. Not so boring but I am not sharing it now.
DONE try to push real hard. LOL. Why?
Another thing we did. Treat the surrounding areas and be mindful of how you “treat” the calf. The calf get injured in part because something else is not working properly. Hamstrings are so tight and glutes ( very likely) that the calves are working overtime. Combine that with the travel prelude… and it’s not all dehydration. Some and a lot of it is just fatigue.
We used to do a modified tempo style training session post travel to prep for next training day / session. NEVER would be do a hard session off a flight or travel first workout esp. if there were days off with no pool, no flushing on bike etc.
THanks. Ive noticed the actual calf does not hurt anymore, its more of the soleous, below the calf on the bottom right. Im gonna lay off it as much as possible for another few days. Ill stick with upper body work, and lots of therapy. h
I did ems and ultra sound all day yesterday and i dont feel it at all during normal activites. I stretch as much as possible. Especially when I come to a step. I let the heels hand to strech the calfs on both sides.
4/23
all this week ive been hitting the weights and doing tempo. calf has been feeling good. Just a lil tight.
I found a therapist a few days ago and went to see him yesterday. Just so happens he works with tons of track athletes, plus some pro soccer players. He also has two baseball pitchers he has been working with for a while in highschool who may be signing huge contracts.
Saw him yesterday. First he gave me a consult and then went to work. He tells me my back was all outta wack and my hips for outta place. My left trap was which was a sign that everything was off. left side of body is pulling causing the issue with my right calf.
THe season was 2 hours with 30 minutes of pure pain once he went into my calf. He did a lot of ems and ultra sound on my back, glutes and calfs to get the muscle to relax so he could get in and do soft tissue work. the work felt good on the back area. once he went to the calf all hell broke loose. My calf was so tight he had to do extra ems and ultra to get the muscle to kinda relax.
Once he went to digging I could feel the knots. I manned up and took the pain. once he was finished I was sweating like I had a workout. then he took me through some stretches which also didnt feel good.
After the calf was nice and sore and tender. Woke up this morning and its now feeling better than yesterday but still a little tender.
I stayed and watched the next athlete who had issues with his calfs and heels. WHen he got on the table he was screaming cause of the ems so I knew he was infor it with the calfs.
Once the therapist hit his calfs. the athlete literally jumped up and tald him to stop he couldnt take it. Me and another athlete told him to man up and breath. He made it through, but he was screaming a like child.
I wish I had known about this therapist earlier. Ill be seeing him weekly from know on once he gets my body on point with the injury i have now. Im shooting to run May 11 at a meet in clermont fl.
Chris, it is important for you to understand that penetrative therapy aimed at resolving fascial restrictions/adhesions, scarring in the muscle tissue, and so on, do not fundamentally necessitate that the patient experience physical torture.
I elect to process most of these issues according to physics fundamentals. Thus, we know that a major distinguishing factor between a penetrative treatment feeling noticeable versus excruciatingly painful is not the magnitude/displacement of tissue deformation (by way of the penetrating instrument) but the rate at which the displacement occurs (both perpendicular to the tissue as well as parallel).
I encourage you to see this for yourself with one of your athletes. Have them lay prone and grasp a thigh mid muscle belly (one hand on one side and one on the other with your thumbs in the middle of the muscle) and perform two trials:
1 (torture)- apply the pressure with your thumbs rapidly and watch them jump and curse your name
2 (intelligent)- apply the pressure with your thumbs very slowly and notice how you can displace just as much tissue, and more, without causing the athlete anywhere near the same amount of discomfort.
This is not to refute any and all claims that there is a time and place for higher rate tissue displacement, increased friction, and so on. This is, however, important information to understand such that deep tissue, and other penetrative therapies, must not be viewed as synonymous with torture.