calf strain

[ehirsch83]

Alright ladies!
Anyone have experience with calf strains and what you can do cycling wise while letting it heal?

I had what appeared to be a degree 1 calf strain last week. At first I thought it was just muscle soreness, so I kept training. It then got to the point where my calf hurt when touched. I then raced saturday and sunday(sunday being a short course with 2 short steep climbs-never a chance for recovery) Sundays course I lost all power and the climbs were impossible! I am attributing this to the calf.

Anyways, it is now sore all the time but I am having a hard time justifying not doing any cycling at all! I took yesterday and this morning off but think I am going to start spinning easy tonight or tomorrow.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Do you know if easy 1.5-2 hour spins will be ok, or will it be detrimental?

[Thorn]

I had a similar issue, but I'm a bit stubborn, never seem to find the good doctor sort of person, I decided to self treat and medicate (yeah, dumb)....but, anyway, I continued to ride on it, but only spinning. If I stood or stomped a hill, it would hurt so no stomping or standing--just spinning. It healed in a couple of weeks. In the process I got much better at finding flatter routes and spinning on the hills.

Now, that's just anecdotal and probably not good medical advice, but I've always been known to push the envelope on illness and injury figuring mental health is just as important as physical. Yeah, not so bright.

[Bry from Oxford]

Hello

Just wondered how it's going with the calf strain?

I'm in a similar situation at the moment - trying to rest it a bit and it's not mega-painful, more of a noticeable niggle! Not sure whether to continue training or whether to have a few days off the bike.

Bry