muscle cramps

Here's a link to an article on muscle cramping at Velo News.

Another good summary sight is at Roadbikerider.com.

Bottom line: no defninitive answers/solutions. We are so highly individual that each person's reason and solution(if found) are solely their own. Regardless, there is no doubt that the lock-up tear inducing muscle cramps are a bane of many cross country racers.

Just for reference point here's my take on my muscle cramps

-Combination of multiple factors
-overexertion
-Certain Electrolyte imbalances

Overexertion
-Let's face it, in a race I go harder than training. No matter how hard I try to do the opposite, it never works out that way. In training I just cannot bypass the selfpreservation complex that automatically sclaes back effort in order to avoid the lock up cramps.

In a race this self preservation get switched off and I can go over the limit and the cramps can take me out.

Electrolyte Imbalance
-sodium, potassium, calcium (chelate vs lactate monohydrate), magnesium? which one if any. One year I tried out Endurolytes and Elete Water. While both helped with heat related light headedness and nausea neither helped with the lock up leg cramps.

My nutrition during a race is almost exclusively Sports drinks for the carbs, but there is sodium in there too, and the Endurolytes/Elete certainly provided enough sodium, so for me I don't think sodium was a culprit.

SportLegs have shown a significant mitigation of my muscle cramps.


Exactly why, I'm not sure. Could be form of calcium or quantity. The other stuff I take and have taken have magnesium but maybe not in the same qty. Who knows. I certainly like the cramp stopping ability of the Sportlegs, but sometimes I don't like the deadened feeling they produce in the leg. It takes a little mental strength to convince myself that the legs can be pushed when they feel numbed.

For this next race I'm going to change the protocol a little.
Skipping the dosage at -1hr. Because since the legs are fresh at the start I don't need them and I want the legs to feel snappy. The first dose will be at time=0 on the start line. This is designed to kick in at +1hr and will cover me till +2hr. At the +1 hr I'll take a dose of 3capsules designed to kick in at +2hr and take me to the end.