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CRAMPS
This time of year I start to get a lot of emails from clients and other folks asking about leg cramping, usually in the quads and calves and usually during longer or harder rides, but sometimes while resting immediately after a longer or harder ride. I hope that you personally are not experiencing this problem, but here's some guidance if you are. If you're not, doing some of these things may keep you cramp free so I recommend these to everyone.
There are many different causes of cramping. Let's start with three of the most common. If you are having cramps and if these treatments don't help we can have a deeper discussion.
One common cause of cramping is dehydration, which is one reason why cramps become more common as the temperature rises. Are you drinking enough? Here are some ways to judge. If you are drinking enough to keep the body functioning optimally, you should need to pee in the first few minutes when you finish a training session or race. If you have access to a scale, you should be no more than one pound lighter post-exercise than pre-exercise. When you do pee, the color should be light, like lemonade or lighter. Dark urine is a sign that you have not drunk enough. Keep track of how much you drink on different weather days and lengths of session, and if it's not enough, drink more on the next similar day. On any ride or run more than one hour, drink sports drinks which contain electrolytes and carbohydrate calories as well as water. Simply replacing water but not the salt you sweat out will lead to hyponatremia (body failure due to low-sodium content of the blood) also called water-intoxication.
Unless you have high blood pressure or a family history of it, salt your food in the hot season. This will help you absorb and retain water which you can then sweat out during exercise. The idea that foods naturally contain all the salt you need applies only to sedentary people who are not out training and sweating. If you eat salty prepared foods in large quantities, you don't need more salt, but if you cook your own foods from unprocessed ingredients, you do.
Another common cause of leg cramps is lack of calcium. If you are not already taking a calcium supplement and don't live mostly on dairy foods, have a Tums or similar generic calcium based antacid each morning plus one before and one each hour during races or hard training. If you eat a lot of raw spinach, stop. Raw spinach contains a lot of oxalic acid which leaches calcium from your system.
Another common cause is the high muscle tensions of riding and especially accelerating in high gears. Do you find yourself getting out of the saddle to accelerate frequently? If so, shift down a gear or two and spin more. Use the bigger gear when that is the only way to keep up, but otherwise spin. Certain running styles will also promote cramping. If you tend to cramp while running, ask a running expert to examine your form to see if anything needs to be changed.
If you are experiencing cramps and none of these ideas seems likely to help, or doesn't help once you try them, please write or call us.
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