Are you doing your midweek stair climbs in boots or running shoes. Mountain boots with stiff soles really place a lot of load on the calf muscles. Try boots on the stairs if you are not already.

As specific calf strength, again I suggest wearing boots when you do these. Here is an article I contributed to about this subject.

7 Exercises to Stretch and Strengthen your Calf Muscles

Scott

At least for me, the discussion of cycling through base fitness –> max strength –> muscular endurance here was really helpful in the context of calf strength. I also find that doing at least a good fraction of workouts not only in boots, but with crampons on (i.e. on frontpoints) is worthwhile. Besides adding (realistic) difficulty in the longer lever arm, it helps acclimatize foot to boot (e.g. toughening heel skin), and provides lots of practice for the (at least for me) quite complicated art of dialing in lace tension just right. Then again if you live somewhere with more readily accessible crampon climbing, this may not be as worthwhile.

here’s a great calf raise worksout:

Calf Raise Intervals

The managed training answer would be something like, add calf strength work now & convert that strength to endurance later this summer. (You can’t go straight to hill sprints & ME, you need to build general strength first)

But your calves are probably not all that deficient (unless the soreness is really debilitating) and it’s possible it could clear up easily with a little more fasthiking, after which you would be able to forget about it.

For me it would depend on how big I felt the gap was. Mild soreness for an hour after, or torture climbing stairs for days after?

@sandrock06 sandrock06 the link only works if you’re a paying subscriber.

Strange. I was able to see the link and I am not a subscriber.

Here’s a different take based on Bill Desimone’s book Congruent Exercise.

He claims that the biomechanics of a conventional move use a wheelbarro type “leverage advantage simply to put up gaudy numbers without effectively challenging your calves.”

In this version, you shift your weight to feel the pressure on the metatarsal break (“ball of the foot”); this minimizes any leverage for the calf. The soleus works with any heel raise, as it attaches the shin to the foot. To work the gastrocnemius efficiently, you want to move from “stretched at the heel and shortened at the knee,” to “shortened at the heel and stretched at the knee,” which avoid insufficiencies. If you need additional weight, hold the dumbbell on the side of the working calf.

Obviously the video is not using a dumbbell. But note the timing of the knee flexion and extension. That is the key, according to Desimone.