Quad cramp

NapoleonD wrote:

I was firstly concerned having viewed the thread title that you were in fact a dog or something.

I'd go to the docs. My cramping issues turned out to be glandular fever and a fvcked liver.

Yours might just be bad fit or poor hydration or indeed poor fitness taking it's toll. Or it could be something else.

As Napolean says it could be many things. I'd say possibly serious but much more likely a passing problem.
Once you've suffered one it may have done some muscle damage plus the original cause may still have been present making the second likely. Years ago before i ever took up cycling I used to occassionally wake up in the middle of the night with a calf cramp. I never discovered the cause and I've just realised now that this must not have happened in maybe 10 years now!
I wouldn't be too concerned, especially if you've been drinking, de-hydrated or just feeling a little off over the past few days. If concerned or if it continues talk to a doctor. Online forums ain't a great place to get medical advice!

What would be the difference between cramp and a muscle strain? I ask this because last week doing the Buxton MTT I suffered what I thought was cramp, took a few minutes to shake off then requried me to slow my cadence down to stop it going again. However, it took around 3 days before the discomfort left me, so I figured it was probably a pulled muscle and not cramp? It was a hot day though and I was probably slightly deyhdrated.

I wonder if others confused the two?

Supermurph09 wrote:

What would be the difference between cramp and a muscle strain? I ask this because last week doing the Buxton MTT I suffered what I thought was cramp, took a few minutes to shake off then requried me to slow my cadence down to stop it going again. However, it took around 3 days before the discomfort left me, so I figured it was probably a pulled muscle and not cramp? It was a hot day though and I was probably slightly deyhdrated.

I wonder if others confused the two?

A cramp is when the muscle contracts on its own, painfully. You can't just relax the muscle, you have to physically stretch the muscle to get it to relax. So for example if it's your calf you'll need to pull your toes towards you to relieve the cramp and if it's your quad you'll have to do a quad stretch. I've only cramped once on a pure cycle, that was my first sportive. It was a very hot day and I didn't drink enough which I think contributes but may not be the entire cause. I'm not really prone to them usually but multi-sport races (duathlons, triathlons and adventure races) seem to trigger them for a lot of people, me included. Typically my calves get twitchy when I start cycling hard after having been running. Once a muscle has already cramped and you get it to relax it's much more prone to cramp again for some time afterwards (next couple of hours say). So in an event when I've already had a cramp, I can feel that muscle twitching whenever I push it close to the level that will trigger another cramp. If you push beyond that level or tense/relax the muscle in a way it doesn't like - Bang! - cramp. You can usually feel it coming so if you back off just enough a recurrence can often be avoided but backing off too much can also trigger - I don't know if it's the same for everyone but for me, continuing to race after a cramp is like a balancing act.
I'm no expert on this but purely by observation - poor hydration, lots of lactic acid and adrenaline and changes in muscle position during exertion seemed to be the main factors present on the few occassions when I've suffered from cramps.

With regards to muscle pain for days afterwards: I believe this is because the muscle contraction during a cramp is uncontrolled and very extreme - way beyond what the muscle is used to. Therefore you suffer some muscle damage during a cramp and get muscle soreness for a while afterwards while it recovers. So I think any muscle strain or soreness is a result of the cramp not a cause.

Based on the above, I would say it was cramp then as I was able to back off and then carry on. Although as Ai_1 mentioned it was a balancing act, I wasnt able to really spin up, I had to change to a grind as I felt it coming back. Once finished I was ok, the next morning it was a bit sort, this passed in a couple of days.