This sounds like a long painful journey and a some harsh truth about injuries. Taking time off the bike completely would have so tough to accept. Kudos to you for sticking to it and getting back. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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In the end I do think it was the tears. But I did consider vascular issues, nerve issues, etc. along the way. I just didn’t have most of the symptoms that would indicate issues in that area.
My pain would vary like yours. I had localized sharper pain/soreness at the tear site but also a diffuse general ache in the whole calf. I think that had to do more with tightness in the muscle and fascia as I still get a hint of that if I don’t stretch really well after each ride.
During the year off I would get on the trainer once a month or so and do an easy 30 min ride. Usually there was no pain during but the next day was the test. If I had pain in the spot of the tear I took another month off. The achiness was there all along. That did not go away until a few months into riding again when I was able to fully stretch the muscle without aggravating the injury. It was the tendon/gastric junction injury that was slow the heal.
If you anything like me you probably did read quite a lot of things on the possible cause of the injury (beside the more obvious tear). I also do not seem to have the most common symptoms of either nerve or vascular entrapment. I did read that connective tissue tear take a lot longer to heal that muscle tear and perhaps now that my initial strains are healed those tissue are still not completely healed.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get and MRI just to at the very least eliminate some of the most obvious issues such as tear.
I must say its hard to not be able to ride in the summer…especially with such a weird injury. It was a lot easier easier to rest when I broke my wrist or tore my MCL, at least the pain or inability to function was obvious in those cases.
I had an issue for years with my right calf. I went through the whole system (dry needling, compartment syndrome testing, Physio, etc.)
What worked for me was a rubber exercise band. I rotate the ankle outwards to strengthen the calf. Helped strengthen the muscles. Took me years to figure this one our :~(
You may also want to look at orthotics (shoes)and/or footbeds (bike shoes). Something a good bike fit would cover.
Looks like you’ve already tried my two suggestions: mid foot cleat position & heel raises.
That sucks that you can’t get diagnosed…or it seems like you’re not getting the proper diagnosis. Keep trying!
Hello, I just stumbled across this thread today and I was wondering if you have had any success with diagnosing the pain. I have had pain in both calves since around April of these year. Like you I have seen lots of doctors and trainers with 0 results. It’s basically a dull ache or tightness in different areas of the calf. Sometimes even a sharp crank that can stop me in my tracks…No matter how much rest I give it, the pain does not want to heal any further, It will even will go away for a day or 2 then come back hard with no extra increase in activity. I have ruled out any back issues and bloodwork came back clean so no mineral imbalance. I am pretty much at a loss to what might be the cause at this point. like you I am thinking I might just have to deal with this the rest of life…
I just wanted to give a little update on my strange calf pain. After a year, I have pain/tightness in my calves each time I ride. It’s a lot more manageable but still I will get sharper pain with no apparent reason for a few
days…The best for me is to keep riding as stopping actually makes things worst and not better so keeping active is better than rest as I’ve tried 3 time staking month long breaks with no real improvement as it actually made starting riding worst.
My PT best guess is that it may be a nerve in my lower back (as I have lower back pain) causing my calves muscles to not fire properly. It’s worth exploring as I do have very weak hamstring and I’ve been dealing with knee pain for a while as well. After reading about lower back nerve issues, weak/short hamstring (I do sit all day so this isn’t helping), causing quad only pedal strokes, causing knee pain and causing pain/tightness in the calves seems like a logical theory to follow-up with. So I’m seeing my doctor this week and we’ll explore this as we had not discuss this yet.
It’s pretty hard to train right now as doing intensity for more than an hour is causing pretty bad knee pain. I did get a bike fit recently and my initial position was spot on already.
I’ll keep you posted on the lower back theory, hopefully it leads to finding the source of all theses issues. I also hope something can be done about it if the issue is really the lower back.
If you are having similar issue and haven’t explore lower back issues, I would suggest you at least get it checked out!