CRAMP

longster

Hi Just after some advice.
was in the south of france at the beining of this week where i did the club des cingles du mont ventoux.

On the second accent i suffered some pretty bad cramp. so I eased back and got through it.
I also had a similar problem on the dragon this year.
On both rides I was using gels and carbo powder. can anyone offer advice on what i can use to stop this?

Thanks in advance
Mark

rick_chasey

Warm up, salt, water.

Pretre

Rick Chasey wrote:

Warm up, salt, water.

+1 - but what you actually need is "salts" - it's not just table salt. Loads of good electrolyte drinks out there - I happen to like SIS.

rick_chasey

Pretre wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Warm up, salt, water.

+1 - but what you actually need is "salts" - it's not just table salt. Loads of good electrolyte drinks out there - I happen to like SIS.

Packet of crisps works for me.

longster

Thanks for the advice guys will give it a try.
Mark

potters1863

I was told recently that a drink of tonic water the night before does the trick.

This was related to someone of 71 who had just completed 75 miles of hilly riding far better than I had

jerry3571

I have a multi vit/mineral to minimse night cramps which seem to be an equal problem to bike cramp; I sem to pull muscles in night cramps.
Cheers Jerry

Brian B

Nuun tablets work for me and you can carry them to add to your bottle when refilling.

chunkytfg

potters1863 wrote:

I was told recently that a drink of tonic water the night before does the trick.

This was related to someone of 71 who had just completed 75 miles of hilly riding far better than I had

Is that with or without GIn and Lemon?

jerry3571

I think the tonic water has got Quinine in it but it didn't do a lot for me.
Sometimes cramps are not caused because of low salts etc, it's because your legs are stuffed. The muscles gets messages from the brain to keep applying pressure on the pedals but the fatigue means that sooner or later your muscles become slow in responding to your brain's messages and the muscle shorts out causing a spasm.
My mate was at Ventoux a few backs; lucky bugg@!!

paul_smith_srcc

I always used to get cramp in early season races as no matter how hard I trained replicating that effort is always difficult. So the best tip I can offer is try an replicate the kind of effort as much as you can in training. As well as the Electrolyte drinks during the ride for a fews days before I drink plenty of Tonic water ‘Quinine‘, which supposedly helps prevent cramp.

Paul_Smith
www.corridori.co.uk

twotyred

Try an energy drink that has electrolytes as well as sugar in it such as Torq.