Pain in lower calf muscle

Hello everyone, last week during my tempo run I got a sudden sharp pain in my left lower calf muscle. It was as if a demon came out of the dirt and whipped it, lol. So I immediately slowed down to a jog and every step was painful after that. So when I got home I iced it and took ibuprofen and then took 4 days off from running. Then yesterday I tried jogging on it and it still hurts. I jogged for about 20 minutes to see if it would go away as I warmed up but it did not. I have had soreness in my lower calves before this incident and was able to ignore the pain and keep running but this particular one keeps on lingering, it frustrates me, I want to run!! I am a converted 4foot striker (4 months approx.), run on vintage puma roma's, I run at least 30 miles a week including intervals, and go on long endurance runs every other weekend. I also do Eric's 4foot strike drill all the time, and I do lunges, squats, a little running backwards, push ups, etc. I don't jump too much because my lower calves get irritated. So can anyone give me advice or has anyone had similar experience? I greatly appreciate it.

P.S.

Born to Run was an awesome book! Thank you everyone.

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Comment by Bobby on June 17, 2011 at 7:51am: Hey Eric, Thanks for the response. I stopped iceing it, it feels good right now (to the touch) but I have't ran on it in a week. The squats and lunges etc. are not new I've been doing those for a while now. I plan to get back on the road again this weekend, I look forward to it. Thanks for your advice.

Comment by Eric Orton on June 16, 2011 at 3:59pm: Hey Bobby,

Thanks for the post and good words. First off, are you continuing to ice your calf during this time? If so, I would stop. Secondly, are the squats/lunges new to your routine or something that you have been doing for some time?

I would start doing some self-massaging of the area, getting as deep with your fingers as you can stand it. Do this several times per day, and since you have given it some rest, I would run on it, as slowly as you need to, to not feel pain. And, reduce the time of your run. Think less more often.

E