yo!
well, i had finally adapted a while ago.. but then i took a few months off from it.. then i tried to jump right back in and got wrecked. so we def can adapt, takes time.. that also assumes our form isn't "incorrect" in the sense that we are overloading our calves too much by an incorrect strike. When I adapted, calves wouldn't give out at all.
if you see a few sessions ago, I did TONS of calf raises.. calves still sore ~3+ days after that session. so ya, i'm actually attempting that. I'm going to do alot more isolation work on my calves to see if it will help.
As for how to approach it, i've been running alot less lately due to my left calf/hamstring injury. So, it's given me time to throw in some of this assistance work, because all I can really do is rest. My plan is to just "adapt" to the high volume calve raises. Several weeks ago I did high volume lunges and my legs/glutes were destroyed for a week. I've been performing hundreds of lower body reps via squats, lunges, stepups, bridges etc the last few sessions.. barely any soreness. So i've adapted there. I need to achieve those same kinds of adaptations with my calves. I figure one or two more sessions might be able to do it... UNLESS they are just so unbelievably weak, which is a possibility.
I think the only real solution is to drop running frequency to a point where you can get in the calf assistance volume until it doesn't affect you. Then gradually bring the volume back. I just don't know if it's worth it yet... I predict it will be, there's no reason a few hundred calf raises should leave my destroyed for 4+ days. For example I probably did 80-100 total dips yesterday and soreness is microscopic. I've just neglected certain muscle groups way too much, it's disappointing.
You could also approach it via:
- high frequency / lower volume.. in the sense of 'activation'
- following your runs
I think it's worth a shot, at least ~2x/week. I mean ideally we should be making sure every link in the chain retains some kind of strength stimulus at least 2x/wk. Simply running doesn't seem to be enough. I'm amazed at how much weaker my calves got, even though my running volume was decent.
That's my plan right now with this upper+lower calisthenics stuff i'm doing.. I need to address every weakness, every joint movement... the fact that I wasn't doing calve raises (various forms) over the last several months, is a lazy oversight & now i'm paying for it. 
When do your calves "give up"? At what point/time/distance?
Have you tried a flat foot strike? Or even heel->toe but landing basically underneath your hips or ever-so-slightly in front? I can run all day with those forms, and they don't bug my knees and such.. feel very stable.
pc!
yeah - shortening my stride and focusing on picking my feet up definitely helped the soreness instantly so maybe there is more to work on there.
nice. that's usually what people have to do when going FF, shorten stride and pickup stride freq. so maybe that'll really help.
i think i'll definitely give it a go after runs, since i tend to run once every 3 days atm. i would like to increase that though once my calves don't get so sore. even if i have to start with double legs 3 x 20 or something haha - i didn't ever actually train calves even when i was training for VJ etc and obviously for oly lifting they're kind of ignored.
ya wait until your body is so adapted that you end up just running for an hour or two,.. it'll happen.. you just say to yourself 'why stop? let's just keep going' .. those runs feel GOOOOD.
when I train calves I get a good "burn" in my glutes.. if you get the same, you could also trick yourself into thinking it is a glute workout. plus it could help with your triple extension in oly's.. lool, anything you need to tell yourself to make them consistent. ;f
well on the treadmill they lasted a full 5k ok - but i ran trail last time and they were shot after 2 miles, literally had to stop only because my calves were totally fatigued which is a shame cos i was having so much fun i would have run all day.
damn..
i'm actually just finishing off collecting my biomechanics data for my dissertation, i looked at different foot strikes and the effect of localised calf fatigue on kinematics/kinetics/emg - i used myself as a participant so once the models and stuff are created i'll have some real in depth gait data to look at which is pretty cool! we drafted in about forefoot strikers, one girl who weighs less than 50kg runs very FF dominant, lives in a hilly area + runs marathons FF - she had the most incredible calves i've ever seen.
nice!! that should be interesting. curious to see what you find.
i haven't really tried RFS and can't seem to get the hang of midfoot without slapping - RFS just irritates my knees no end and it's also difficult on the surfaces im running on too (other than treadmill).
it's actually the opposite for me. midfoot/RFS is super quiet, I barely make any noise. (and i run on pavement). forefoot oscillates between somewhat quiet and noisy, for the most part.. it gets quiet, ironically, if I run faster.. but i can't maintain that pace right now without my calves blowing up.
once my calf heals i'm going to get back to RFS/midfoot. This seems to be my cycle: run RFS/midfoot & make progress (big mileage), want to go faster so transition to forefoot, calves die, can't run, take time to recover, repeat.
so going to get back to RFS/midfoot, but, this time keep training lower body calisthenics hard (with calve raises etc) & mix in some sprints.. that should help alot more than what I did the last few months (upper calisthenics + long running).
as for RFS, what I do is make sure I strike barely in front of me or beneath me. as long as you don't overstride with it, it feels good (to me). so just like FF, you pick up your stride rate & strike closer to your COG/under hips, and it makes it a pretty efficient/strong strike.
and finally.. the best thing about not going FF for me.. I don't have to think about it when i'm running. I like to "NOT THINK" about form and such. I like to either clear my head (zone out) or think about other stuff, not running related.
btw, have you read 'born to run' ? - i'm about to finish it and now i'm totally inspired to run an ultra marathon one day haha.
haha sick. nah I havn't. I heard it's a great book though.
If you like 3 miles, you'll like 10 miles, and you'll like 15 miles etc. Ultra makes even more sense given where you live.. around here it's just running on roads for 50 miles.. which is ok but, kinda meh. Doesn't excite me as much.
like I said earlier.. running for a few hours feels amazing.. you're lungs will feel so clean & fresh at the end, and the body/mind will feel light.. it's a great feeling.
pc!!
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is strong ^^
