Cramp!

I sympathise with this, I suffer from debilitating calf cramp on long races (never runs, always races). I was actually winning the Nine Edges race a couple of weekends ago before being struck down with cramp in both calves at about the 16 mile point.

I've tried compression socks - little difference.

Aside from obviously stretching out the affected muscles, the only solution I've found is to get fluid and food on board immediately and hope it kicks in quickly, which leads me to think that I'm not hydrating or feeding enough on the hoof the rest of the time in the long races. Next time I'm going to plan what to eat and drink in advance and more specfically at which point to ensure a more even distribution and see how that goes.

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Originally Posted by simgreen78

I sympathise with this, I suffer from debilitating calf cramp on long races (never runs, always races). I was actually winning the Nine Edges race a couple of weekends ago before being struck down with cramp in both calves at about the 16 mile point.

I've tried compression socks - little difference.

Aside from obviously stretching out the affected muscles, the only solution I've found is to get fluid and food on board immediately and hope it kicks in quickly, which leads me to think that I'm not hydrating or feeding enough on the hoof the rest of the time in the long races. Next time I'm going to plan what to eat and drink in advance and more specfically at which point to ensure a more even distribution and see how that goes.

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Unlucky with the Nine Edges, must have been very frustrating.

Could be lack of food for me. I didn't eat a lot during Sunday's 20 miler. Tried to get something down at 15 miles but it felt like it was coming back up.

I've been very impressed with Nuuns and I am generally very cynical about sports drinks, gels, energy food etc

Once I'd whacked down a flapjack and half a litre of Nuun water I got going again after a (fair) few minutes and felt OK. Don't know which had the greatest impact in powering up my calves, but I've taken it as a lesson for the next time...

Looks like Nuun is the way to go then. Windgather 13.5 on Sunday so will give the nuun a try

Yep I know this problem only too well and have tried quite a bit of stuff. Its a hugely personal thing and what works for one might not work for another.

I did some of my first longer distance runs off the back of a fairly low weekly mileage and suffered in some of the LDWA events simply due to not being fit enough and also not really having a decent grasp on hydration and eating during the event.

Any longer distance stuff I'm now fairly regimented and try to eat something everything 45mins/1 hour and ensure I'm drinking atleast 500ml for every 1 hour of excercise. Best to try and get reasonably hydrated before the start as well.

One of the things I also struggled with was monitoring how much fluid I was actually taking onboard, from my first events I was probably drinking about 1ltr of fluid in 5 hours worth of running. :o

From a personal perspective I found it virtually impossible to guage how much I was drinking using a bladder, so switched to using bottles. Something like the SIS bottles are great with graduations so you know how much you've had. It also means you're not lugging around extra weight but it does mean you need to fairly sure there is water source available en route.

Stretching is something which I've tried to add in to my weekly routine and whilst I don't think its massively helped its something I just do.

It might also be worth looking at your diet we don't really eat any pre-packaged meals, everything is prepared from scratch and we don't really use a huge amount of salt in our cooking. Every now and then I just add a bit of extra salt to my meal again its not something I've identified as being the key contributor.

Finally I started using Nuun like others have recommended and rate it highly.

As you'll see its a bit of a conundrum and something which will take a bit of experimentation to see what works for you on a personal level, all the above is something I've played around with over the last 18 months.

I did an adventure race last month and after 7 hours worth of racing on the final day I can say that I didn't cramp which for me is a major step in the right direction.:w00t:

I try and drink a litre of Nuun 1-2 hours before the race and drink a mix of nuun and energy drinks through the race. Waiting until you are hungry or thirsty is waaaaaayyyyyyyy too late. I start approx 30 minutes in on a long race.

I had no cramp at PPP's this which is notorious for it, and only got it on the Skyline in the last two miles after running way above my standing.

amount is dependent on weather obviously a warm day like the OCT this year it is impossible to drink enough. But as a rule of thumb I try and work to body weight in Kilos converted to millilitres x75% per hour

80 kilo's= 0.8lts x75%= 0.6lts an hour, it seems to work for me, if it's hot then a bit more.

Thanks for the detailed reply Mike.

From all the replies it looks like eating is something I don't do enough of during races. I tend to assocaite cramp with not enough liquid on board and neglect eating.

Everyone mentions the Nuun so I'll pick some up this week.

No problems at all, it will take a bit of time but stick with it.

Ian thanks for that bit of info as well, I've not really seen it expressed like that before but makes for a fairly simple way of monitoring hydration.

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Originally Posted by MikeH

No problems at all, it will take a bit of time but stick with it.

Ian thanks for that bit of info as well, I've not really seen it expressed like that before but makes for a fairly simple way of monitoring hydration.

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I'm sure I read it some where, there is a limit as to how much water your body can absorb in 1 hour, any more than this and it just swill around in your stomach. It may be that you will still dehydrate(so drink plenty before running) but at a controlled rate.

So if you don't drink for say 2 hours then you can't get that time back to take on fluids you start from the moment you drink if that makes sense.