Cramps!

RalleighOke

Yesterday rode a 100 km, after 60 km's my legs cramped. Could not get out of the seat on uphills to get speed up and sitting down my calves cramped.

I had a lot of fluids and had no problem wiht hydration. I also have sufficient salt intake.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do when this happens? Anything that I can take with that will help?

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"pain is temporary, pride is forever"

2LAP

Was this a large increase on what you are used too?

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RalleighOke

Hi 2LAP,

Yes, definitly, I'm used to training 50 kms or so on flats and 40 on hills.

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"pain is temporary, pride is forever"

Pat Lee

I have a problem with cramping that goes away with some training, but I asked a pharmacist at the local druggery and he told me cramps are a result of a chemical imbalance or deficiency. So, I told him I was pront to eating bananas when I could get them if I started cramping and that one time I could be seen eating table salt out of a table shaker when I was cramping but nothing seemed to help. Apparently, once you've cramped, it's too late. He recommended supplementing a diet with Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc Pills. I aske him about Potassium supplements, but he said Ca, Mg, Zn was more important. I think they've helped me some days quite a bit. Sometimes I imagine that I have more energy when I've been taking them regularly, which is a side effect. I suspect the real culprit is my diet. You can find the vitamins in a single pill at your local vitamin counter. I like Trader Joe's, because they're cheap, otherwise you might try Costco.

Bottom line is that if you don't put gas in the tank, you won't have anything to burn. Carbs and protein alone won't do it. Go to a biology book and see what else you find besides carbs and protein in the reactants for muscle contraction.

Sounds like you tried to recover on the bike after cramping and that's about the only thing that has really worked for me. I put it in the lowest gear and hope pedaling circulates the junk out of the cramp. I don't know if this makes any sense physiologically, but it sometimes works for me. What has never worked for me: stopping to massage the cramp. It just seems to prolong the agony. Massaging the muscle while pedaling seems to work a little though.

One more thing, heat really exacerbates my cramping problem. It seems to increase my cramping potential quite a bit if I ride in hotter weather.

--Pat.

RalleighOke

Thanks for the Info Pat Lee.

You are right, I did try to recover on the bike. Bottom line is, after reading all the threads on this topic, I have to train longer distances.

Reason why I say this is because I Carbo loaded sufficiently, had sufficient drinking, but never did this distance before on one day.

It will now only be a matter of training for these kind of distances.

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"pain is temporary, pride is forever"

Glasgow United

I find standing up on the pedals to stretch the hamstrings and calves for about 8 seconds plus each leg can relieve the cramp if it is only minor.

larrynipon

[My doctor recommended drinking tonic water (source of quinine). It has proven to be incredibly beneficial. Before your ride, during the day. Can't really drink too much. Has definitely completely relieved those nightime cramps I occassionally got, and has all but eliminated "during-ride" cramping.

rollers

Does your hydration (and feeding) include a good mix of all the nutrients you need for a long ride like this? The problem with cramps is much more complex than can be addressed with salt and hydration.

What did you take on the ride?

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RalleighOke

1) Had a bowl of "Pronutro" the morning.
2) Has some bananas on the race.
3) 3 x 750ml Waterbottles filled with "Cytopower" + Water from the water points.

Had also been carboloading during the week by eating lots of Pasta, Potatoes etc. And 4 days before the race also Carboloaded with "Cytopower" - 1x 750 ml in the morning and 1x 750 ml in the Afternoon - OH YEAH...and I had no Beer

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"pain is temporary, pride is forever"

Pat Lee

I think you're on the right track with training more, and eating the right stuff ahead of time. When you're carbo-loading during the leadup to a big day in the saddle, don't forget to get some of those vital minerals and quinine loaded tonic water or whatever you think it is that works at this point. Here's my experience that sorta hammered that concept home for me:

While I was in the ER for food poisoning, I was telling the doctor that I was trying to drink some Gatorade before I ended up in the ER with the uncontrolled violent illness thing. Basically, I was trying to apply my cramping theories to my state of affairs because my stomach was tied up and I was having trouble breathing and my muscles were twitching. It seems like I had a pretty bad case of dehydration and some sort of salt imbalance to go with that. Anyway, to make a long story short, I told him about loading up with the Gatorade, because I knew I was getting dehydrated and he told me, "that's great. It'll be good for you tomorrow, but it won't do anything for you tonight."

The moral of the story for me was that my body is a little slower to take up some of the things it needs than I thought. I guess it might absorb what you need right away, but perhaps there's a little time lag before it's usable by those muscle groups in your legs. FWIW.

--Pat.