I’m on week six of a 16 week training plan, running four times a week on the back of no regular exercise, scoff some protein and do simple stretches post-run. So far, other than the odd niggle and ache, it’s all gone swimmingly but did the scheduled 4 miles this morning and I’ve got some calf pain – it feels pretty deep inside the muscle, and (this might be me) possibly a little swollen in there. Can I run it off or should I postpone tomorrow’s steady 5? Anything I can do to help heal it, does manipulation help?

Sounds very much like what I had at a similar stage of my running development. I did some heavy stretching like this, lots of massage and a bit of rest. My physio reckoned that if it hurt more than 6/10 when running that I should stop, less than that was fine to continue for short runs.

If you look for foot collective on instagram there are lots of videos showing how to release your calves and how to stretch them before and after a run.

https://www.instagram.com/thefootcollective/?hl=en

Thanks both, will check them both out. 🙂