i woke up during the middle of the night with a painful
cramp in lower calf muscle- it was one of those that wakes up up out of a sound sleep
and has you gasping for air grabbing your calf trying to get it to stop.

the pain subsided after a few minutes and i fell back to sleep- well don't i get up and begin my morning ritual to bike to work and realize my calf muscle hurts like hell and i can't ride.
i tried stretching but it didn't work- now i'm walking with a limp, really nice

my commute is 22 miles each way and I rode into work wed and thurs,
i've been bike commuting for 4 years now and this was the first week where i'd done a back to back although i've been riding to work 2 days a week for past 6 weeks.
it's bike to work day of which i've been a big champion and my specialized roubaix that i'd shined up to ride today is sitting in my basement

Oooh that sucks. Especially on the National Bike to Work Day!

Yeah, ouch indeed. You need more potassium to avoid those cramps. Eat more bananas & yogurt if you don't want to go through that again.

i had a bottle of muscle milk when i got home but what i noticed later on in the
evening was i felt dehydrated. i also hammered the last 2 miles of my commute after
i noticed a roadie was trying to drop me- i went full out trying to prevent a pass,

as i type at my desk it still hurts, i'm trying to self massage but do you think riding is out
for this weekend?

Be careful about self massaging a work. Can get you into a heap of trouble.

As for ridign this weekend, get on the bike for a short/easy ride and see how it feels. If it feels lousy, stop.

I tore my left hamstring Wed night running bases in a softball game. Thursday night I tried to ride around the block (thinking that hamstrings aren't the primary muscles being used in cycling). No dice...got 10 yards and the extension and contraction hurt like hell. So I'm waiting until Sunday to try again.

Hated missing most of bike to work week - rode in Monday, couldn't on Tues and Wed due to after work commitments. Then was unable to ride Thurs and Fri - the first two really nice days we've had here in a long time. Oh well...I got some new parts coming today to finish a MTB and a vintage build!!

Wow, that sucks.

I have a 17 miler and I've done several back-to-backs but have yet to do 3 consecutive days. (I sometimes rode to work 5 days in a week last year when my commute was only 7 miles.)

After a back-to-back though, I tend to just feel fatigued and not really sore. I like to say that I don't get all worked up about other riders, but I have to admit that I pulled out my cell phone to take a picture of some local construction this morning when a roadie zipped by behind me. I hopped on my hybrid and caught up to him and rode with him for a few miles at much more than my normal pace. It turns out we work for the same company, although different locations, and have some common friends. I was relieved when he turned left and I turned right.... I could go back to being a pokey butt.

i hear ya, i was looking forward to leaving my trek fx at home and riding my road bike in- i washed and polished it,

i look forward to this day all year long- it gives me a chance to promote bike commuting and i also noticed yesterday on the ride home there were quite a few police stationed on my route ticketing people for speeding and poor driving which slowed people down

hot bath with a big helping of epsom salt - 3 cups and 20 minute minimum. don't try to stretch it anymore - it's in spasm. hot bath and massage will help. you can also take a very small supplement of magnesium and normal dose of potassium

what's funny is i don't mind getting dropped by anyone other than roadies in white cycling kits.

It sucks to get injured while sleeping. If there's one activity that should be safe, it's sleeping!

Last year, I slept on my arm wrong and woke up with a sore shoulder. I thought it was no big deal, just a little sore, so I rode as usual. Over the following week, the pain got worse and worse. After 2 weeks, I couldn't ride anymore and went to the doctor. Ended up having to rest for 4 weeks. This was mid-June to mid-July, so the waiting was absolute torture. Don't mean to depress you, I hope your calf is nothing like that!