Recently I’ve noticed some calf pain on my inner left calf. I did change my shoes recently and I changed my saddle on my trainer. I’m sure it’s related to one of these but I’m not sure if it’s possibly cleat position on my left shoe or if it’s related to saddle height on the trainer now. I have only done one proper outdoor ride in the new shoes and don’t remember if I had calf pain afterwards.
Does anyone know what typically causes pain on the inner calf? I can go through a process of elimination to determine the source but wanted to check if anyone had an idea in what order I should follow when trying to isolate the source.
several muscle/tendon groups there to look at, especially posterior tibialis and flexor hallasus longus (FHL). may want to consider a proper insert for the shoe if cleat position and bike fit are ruled out
I’ve found I get sore calves if the saddle is too high or too low. Took a lot of trial and error to find the correct height that made me feel most comfortable and most powerful. You may just have to do the same.
Make sure when you change anything that you only change one thing at a time. And write down the changes so you can reverse them. Then keep the final ones saved (I have mine on Google keep but any reminder or notes app would do) so you can reset if something happens to put it out of alignment. I’ve had to refer to my fit numbers to reset my fit 2-3 times this year while playing around with saddle fore and aft.
I ended up changing almost everything going by feel and the pain has gone. Started with a saddle height adjustment, then adjusted the arch support from my insoles to one level down (I have the G-8s). Felt like my heel wanted to rotate out slightly so I rotated my cleat and that solved it.
I did all of that over the course of about 20 minutes so it’s hard to say what was the biggest factor but at least I got there in the end.