Calf pain is the weak link

wjohnc

wjohnc

0
About a month ago I decided to make a fitness change in my life, and there's a lot of work to do. I've been exercising regularly only for about a month, and have been walking / interval training on the treadmill all month, but jogging at a regular pace on the treadmill is new to me, only starting, really, this week.

I've been jogging at a regular speed of between 4.5 to 5.2 mph, at a incline of between 0 and 4, for cardio every day this week (sometimes jumping to 6 or 8 mph for 30 seconds or a minute at a time), which I can do only for about 4 or 5 minutes at a time. Not because my heart / lungs can't keep up, not at all.

The problem is that I get terrific pain in my calves, both of them and I have to stop for 20 seconds or so before they can take any more. It's like they get completely exhausted before the rest of my body, including my quads.

One more thing: My calves are very muscular, from many years of walking (for my job).

Anybody have any input? It's very frustrating, and it's actually really killing my cardio treadmill routine.

Thank you
JohnC
 
High incline will work the calves more. Lower the treadmill to 0 incline and see if that helps.
 
No, they're not shin splints. I've had those before and know well what they feel like. And I spend the first 5 mins on the 'mill walking, warming up.

The best way to describe what happens is that they get tired. Plain ol' tired. Even though they're very muscular.

Very strange.

Thank you, everyone, for your input.
 
wjohnc said:
I've been jogging at a regular speed of between 4.5 to 5.2 mph, at a incline of between 0 and 4, for cardio every day this week (sometimes jumping to 6 or 8 mph for 30 seconds or a minute at a time), which I can do only for about 4 or 5 minutes at a time. Not because my heart / lungs can't keep up, not at all.

The problem is that I get terrific pain in my calves, both of them and I have to stop for 20 seconds or so before they can take any more. It's like they get completely exhausted before the rest of my body, including my quads.
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It sounds like you are making the mistake of continuing to train even when you can feel strong pain.

When you feel 'serious' pain, stop the exercise, stretch, and walk for a while, and try to start again. If the pain still doesn't go away, it's probably a sign that you need at least two days of rest.

Perhaps you need to scale back your training a little bit? Are you trying to do too much, too quickly?

You mention you did cardio every day this week - depending on the intensity of your training, this may be too many days consectutively to be training.

All I can suggest is, you need to rest more! I would aim to have two consectutive days of rest every week.

Good luck!
 
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