I have a history of injuries, and am no stranger to dealing with them. I had shin splints that developed into stress fractures a year ago. After healing, I have so far managed to prevent their re-occurrence, but at times, I can feel random pain in my tibia. I have been doing careful warm-ups and stretching, and so hope to continue prevention.
I have a strange pain in my left calf, along the back side. It is always in the same exact place, and normally subsides after a while. It hurts the worst when I take a step, and have never noticed it when running, only after running. I don't notice it when standing or sitting. I can't figure out what is causing this. It feels like muscle pain.
I have two runners knees, and this is developing into quite a serious issue. Two weeks ago I went into complete rest, took a lot of painkillers, and iced multiple times a day. After a week I felt like I was at about 95%, weaned myself off painkillers, and went back to training. For the next week for training I continued icing, and rarely took painkillers. This week the pain is back. It has changed to cover a larger area, travelling into my thighs at times, and sometimes the pain is so great I have difficulty distinguishing where it is coming from. I am not uncomfortable, I can still walk and run, I PR'd last night on my 200m, but I am in constant pain. I've heard that runner's knee is basically just swelling caused by rubbing of the patella against the thighbone. It is not a worrisome pain, it is just painful. I have always had weak knees that popped or bothered me when doing lunges and split squats, and I can no longer do either with a very heavy weight. I have only a month to go before the biggest competition of my life, and I refuse to miss out on this. What should I do?
I have looked into k-tape and braces for competition, but don't feel like either would be very helpful. The only thing that makes me feel better is ice and painkillers.