Discussion: Do you stretch?

Having never observed this phenomenon, I'd like to suggest regular stretching as a remedy for tight calves.

Your shins are on the front of your leg, your calves are on the back. I'd be surprised if shin splints caused calf pain.

Yeah, I typically stretch my calves for a minute or so after each run on my stairs. I may expand my calf-stretching regimen.

Re: Brendan; the discomfort is highly delocalized, but there is some swelling on the front of my leg. I'm not certain what the problem is, but shin splints seem to be a possible explanation.

In my experience (and this is entirely empirical), my calves are tightest after running fast on flat routes. Track workouts, road races and urban sprints being amongst the worst culprits. Tight calves also seem to be avoided (or at least lessened) by going for a very prompt warm-down jog after the culpable event. The speed of the warm-down seems not to matter, so fifteen-minute miles around a race track are sometimes a favorite.

And just for the sake of completeness.... icing, 20 mins on 20 mins off is often recommended too. Stretching seems easier than getting a bag of ice and a towel so that it doesn't leak all over the floor.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I will add components of each - more stretching, cool downs, and ice - into my regimen. The discomfort I feel is not yet an injury (and it may be acute rather than an unlikely "overuse" injury), but I don't want to take chances.

Easier than the whole ice-bag-and-towel thing is just frozen peas. You can meld them to whatever shape you want, and they don't leak. Or buy some of those flexible hot/cold packs. Keep it in place with an ace bandage so you can do other things too.

I have super tight calves, and I've found that a regimen of foam-rolling and stretching makes it so that I can keep running, if barely. Usually they only get really bad after speed work, since then I toe strike, whereas orienteering or slower running I'm more of a midfoot-heel striker.