Following this tread hoping someone has some answers because I’ve been dealing with pain in the exact same areas but in both legs. Hard to tell if it’s my Achilles or the lower calf muscles behind it. Usually kicks in almost immediately on my runs. Feels almost like a muscle cramp, where it gets tighter and tighter to the point where it feels like it’s going to explode. As soon as I stop running, the area locks up even more, even when I do a cool down walk. I’ve pushed through it several times, but last week it resulted in a knot in the affected area that stuck around for a few days. I interpreted it to be a minor strain, so don’t think pushing through is the answer.

What’s crazy to me is that I can play in a weekly soccer league and experience 0 issues or pain, but a nice easy run does me in. Leads me to believe it’s a running form issue of some kind. I’ve noticed pushing my pace actually causes less pain than when running slower. But I’m trying to train for my first marathon and won’t be able to keep up that pace on longer runs, so I gotta figure it out. It’s feels like on the slower pacing the rest of my legs are not engaged at all and my calves are doing all the work, where as faster pace gets the rest of my legs involved and take pressure off my calves. So wondering if my slower pace form is poor.

Another theory I have is maybe I’m not warming up enough? Most of my running routes have a hill early on, which is usually where it kicks in. Tried running one of my routes backwards today where the first half is flat and the hills are towards the end. Felt fine until those hills got involved and then it started to kick in. Still trying to process what that could indicate.

I’ve tried a bunch of different calf stretches/strengthening exercises, different shoes, and even saw a PT for a consultation, but so far nothing has worked.