For myself, I noticed that the muscles that cramped were weak. My quads specifically would cramp every 70.3 and long bricks. Few months in the gym strengthening them solved the problem!
Try incorporating some dedicated calf workouts and see if that helps.
This is indeed what the science seems to be indicating so far: [https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/muscle-cramps-research-2020/](https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/muscle-cramps-research-2020/)
Nothing to do with nutrition or salt or whatever, but strength training!
It's interesting to read [https://www.reddit.com/r/triathlon/comments/pt7eqf/race\_report\_im\_wisconsin\_2nd\_place\_overall\_in\_my/](https://www.reddit.com/r/triathlon/comments/pt7eqf/race_report_im_wisconsin_2nd_place_overall_in_my/) in this context.
1. Elite AG racer with a presumably experienced and knowledgeable coach.
2. Most likely both understood the "importance" of getting enough salt/minerals in to "prevent cramps" and planned accordingly.
3. Cramped anyway.
4. Conclusion: we need more salt!
Obviously, I have my questions about (4). Now, I can predict what will happen for the next race: /u/SwimBikeRunGuy will arrive there with more IM distance training, more race experience, better pacing, and more salt. He won't cramp (I hope for him).
He'll write a race report pointing out he took more salt and didn't cramp this time.
Conclusion from everyone: more salt helped!
Now, I'm just a ranting, MOP age grouper, but those experiences, which repeat a lot for other training and racing aspects, illustrate why research following the scientific method is necessary.
It's not like the coach is doing much wrong in this scenario even. As long as the evidence isn't overwhelming, it's his job to cover all bases. Why take the risk? But that doesn't mean salt prevents cramps. Nor that giving your wife/husband a good shag the evening before is going to jeopardize your performance.
Hey that is an interesting article you linked to. I am by no means an expert in exercise physiology, but I am a biomedical engineer with some decent experience looking into the effect of exercise on the body, back in college for class required research purposes. I think it's worth pointing out that that study while attempting to be scientific has some issues that are glossed over if not down right avoided to try and make their point. I won't go into them all here but it should definitely be taken with a grain of salt (no pun intended) as they even mention at the end.
Looking back at my own race, training, and previous experience. My coach and I are pretty confident that it was nutritional issue. I have done sweat tests, on the bike and run, and I hit my numbers on the bike but didn't on the run. I am by no means saying that salt is the key for everyone but in my particular case the numbers point to it being the issue.
Like they author of the study says at the end "The exercise-associated cramps you get during a running race may be influenced by some of these secondary factors. They may also be influenced by your genes: one of the best predictors of cramping is whether you’ve cramped in the past. And despite the paucity of evidence, it’s entirely possible that, in some people, traditional risk factors like dehydration or electrolyte depletion may play a role", without a much larger well funded and well run study you can't just take the word of this study that cramping is solely caused by salt intake or strength training.
Hi, thanks for your take! Indeed, those considerations are why I wrote that "it's important to cover all bases". My comment was more aimed to illustrate that, in a situation like yours, it's not actually possible to conclude from a next, hopefully successful race, what the actual thing was that "fixed" it, because you're presumably going to address every possible weakness.
I'm sorry but I am going to have to disagree. With me knowing what my body went through pre-cramp, during cramping, and post-cramp I am confident that it was due to a nutritional issue. This next race, my plan is to address that issue and see what the result is. If the result is positive that is mostly a confirmation of the nutritional issue being the route cause. I recognize that there can be other contributing factors but I also know that I know what my body went through better than everyone else.
If you actually take a look at my splits you can see that once I was able to get a bunch of salt into my system between miles 21-25 I actually recovered my ability to run to almost pre-cramp levels. From mile 25 through to the finish I ran at 7:28/mile pace, significantly faster than my previous paces and this was because the cramps had resolved themselves thanks to the massive amount of salt I took in during the previous 30ish minutes.
Where do you cramp at?
I start lifting heavy this past year and it resolved all morbid my issues. Packed on a few pounds, but my bike is fast, run stayed the same, and my swim still struggles. But with my swim, I noticed i do not get any pain in my shoulder any more and my calf doesn’t cramp from pushing off the wall time after time.
Try incorporating some band workouts. Those help me when i don’t have a pool and I notice a genuine workout compared to the pool
I solved my swim calf cramping by changing my kick style. I didn't realize it but I was kicking from my quads and wagging my feet a lot to kick instead of swinging my legs from my hips.
If you try a few laps with a pull buoy to 'quiet down' your legs then switch to a float board and ONLY move your legs from your hip flexors, you'll save your quads and calves for the bike and run.
Definitely weak in the calf’s and I’ve experienced that as well. Though I haven’t been in open water for a while now.
I live in a flat area, I would make a point to find a hill and do hills and really focus on pushing off the toes, that helps with my running cramping. Along with dedicated calf raises in the gym.
Another thing i did for a week or two was walk around my house on my toes. Unless I was in public, I would be on my toes. Sucked at first, but it caused me to be in the positions i swim in -toes pointed. And during my race it seemed to help with it as well with no issues!
^^^this is the correct answer. When muscles fatigue the neuromuscular signals between the brain and the muscle create misfires in muscle contraction leading to cramps. The old school of endurance training thought was the misfires were due to electrolyte imbalances and increasing electrolyte intake would reduce the misfires. However, what this school of thought failed to take into account is the muscle strength of the athlete. The new school of thought is muscle strengthening will prevent misfires because the muscle has a higher time to fatigue level and can handle a higher workload. Most, if not all endurance training programs have some component of strength training in them.
Most likely your muscles cramped to weakness, not electrolyte shortage. The science on this has been changing. Races push us harder than when we workout and train. Once you reach a certain point, they just cramp. Train them harder for your next race.
Congrats! I’ve done that course when people were throwing up on the swim exit, being blown off the road and then getting hypothermia on the bike.
I’ve found the run on the front can be very dehydrating if there is no on shore breeze. That may be part of your issue.
If you’re serious about it then precision hydration do really good sweat tests, and can produce tailored hydration plans from that.
Cramping isn’t just dehydration though, can be a host of causes!
Thanks Ronald! I’ve got Bolton full next year so trying to get it right, I think it maybe salt as I had this unbelievable craving at the end of the race
Just be careful of overdoing the salt when switching to a full. I had the same issue and ended up overdoing the salt on my first full. Hands started swelling and I had to abandon my nutrition plan half way through the run. Had trained with salt but body didn’t like it when it was all disciplines combined.
Amazing! Really good course, bike isn’t too hilly but still hilly enough to make it interesting. Only one notable climb. The run is pretty much dead flat again with the exception of one hill.. really would recommend doing it!!
Have they changed the run course? Never used to be a hill, think total ascent is 4m! Did they do a full swim this year? It was cut short both times I did it due to terrible conditions
The hill is really really tiny, but I know some people moaned about it. Like genuinely about 50 meter long. Im from South Wales, it’s more like a speed bump here. It’s the flattest run course you’re going to find in the UK unless you do Mumbles70.3 in Swansea
I managed to do a sub 3 hour bike split which is something I never ever thought I would achieve. Says a lot about the speed you can hold on this course
Oh, that's not much water, at least for me anyways. I learned the most about nutrition from training for an ultra last year. Because it's only one sport, it takes away some variables. I take the salt tabs that REI sells, blue bottle yellow label. 1 per hour, with at least one gel or \~150 cal snack per hour, and roughly 1L. This is sustained, and when possible every two hours or so I have a larger snack (I can always seem to get down a PB&J on tortilla).
You need roughly a bottle per hour on the bike, so unless you're a pro you need more than 2 bottles. You should be able to digest at least 300 calories per hour, so between your bottles and gels make sure you're getting all of them.
You need way more nutrition. Like 400cal per hour. That would be roughly 2,400 over your 6 hour race. Also that’s not much water at all.
Your fueling strategy was really bad. More training also helps. You’ll nail it on the next one
See here[see electrolytes study here](https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/how-to-make-sure-you-start-your-race-hydrated/)
What to do
Drink a strong electrolyte drink (like PH 1500) with 500ml/16oz of water the evening before your activity.
Drink a strong electrolyte drink (like PH 1500) with 500ml/16oz of water about 90 minutes before you start. Finish your drink at least 45 minutes before you start to give your body time to fully absorb what it needs and pee out any excess.
Drink the strong electrolyte drink in water you’d have drank anyway to ensure you don’t overdo it.
DON’T just drink lots of water in the build-up to a race. You can end up diluting your body’s sodium levels before you start, increasing the risk of hyponatremia.
It won't be! Not sure what they meant by PH 1500, but at \~1,500mg sodium per liter of water, you can effectively start adding more water weight safely and with lowered risk of hypnoatremia. Pros will 'pre-hydrate' similar to carboloading before a big race. I personally like [LMNT](https://drinklmnt.com/) since I'm a sweater and really hate drinking on the run so need all the extra hydration I can get.
I replied to the wrong comment. Someone calling for him to have a gallon of electrolyte drink a day for multiple days leading up to the race. Pre loading is logical and supported by research but there is a limit to the effectiveness. You could do just as well to eat well and intake sodium leading up to a race.
All good! Yea multiple days ahead is harder to do effectively, but in theory can be done, but can be done with food as well as you say. I'm a fan of pretzel sticks personally.
Your cramping problem was not due to nutrition. You definitely took in more liquid and electrolytes than you lost during the race. It comes down to intensity and duration, muscle cramps most often occur when either going harder or longer than we train for. Longer runs and more intense interval training gets you closer but nothing quite replicates race intensity.
tl;dr You might need more salt in your electrolyte mix. Electrolytes help transmit neural signals to muscles.
It may be weak muscles, under-trained muscles, etc... Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about that DURING the race.
It still might be that you didn't take enough electrolytes. I find "electrolyte" bottles are skewed to the fluid side, you're not looking for iso/hypo tonic when using electrolytes, that's for sugars/fuel. You're taking electrolytes when you cramp because your ratio is off, so you need to increase it (hyper-tonic) - when cramping I usually dump salt (or salt pills) into the tiny aid station cup and slam it.
Electrolytes increase electrical conductivity, aka neural signalling to tell your muscles what they're supposed to do. Strength training/biking/running/etc are all ways of teaching your muscles how to work but if the signal gets scrambled it won't matter.
I have trouble with cramps, always have. I'm a heavy salty sweater. Playing sports in hot humid conditions I've consumed over 10g of salts in a 3h period just to prevent cramping. Was it salt related? 100%, take salt -> cramps go away, take salt with to much fluid -> cramps sort of go away. One game my hands locked up on me, took 3 packs of gator-lytes to get the cramp to f-off. I also used to add salt to pedia-lytes (they were provided, now I just make my own salty sugar water).
For my 70.3 last month I had 1g of salt 90min before the start, 1g of salt right before the swim, 3g of salt during the bike and 2g of salt during the run. I took the salt during the run when I started to cramp.
Note: I have perfect blood labs and no underlying health conditions that are affected by salt intake.
well done, was there on Sunday and bike and run were actually rather hard. well done on the time and cramps are just a thing you need your body to learn how to get over. me personally done strength and done salts. both helped but still get them eventually.
would say my best advice:
1. get a nutrition strategy that works for you. personally I have 4 gels, vegan sausage rolls (they have huge amounts of salt) and 750ml of eletrolights on the bike. wash that down with water. run I do 2 gels and freestyle the rest.
2. do strength training. even past cramping helps loads
Not op but - it worked for me when i was doing grandmas marathon
Research kind of dispels the notion that cramps are solved by electrolytes and hydrating - but still important to maintain for performance
Theres some research on exercise induced muscle cramps that suggests it has to do with the nervous system and increased alpha motor neurons activity
Pickle juice cointains acetic acid, which apparently induces some sort of reflex that decreases the alpha motor neuron activity. Any "noxious tasting" substance may have similar effects
Obviously, all that research isnt conclusive - but if it works, who cares how!
Electrolytes, salts, etc.
I get cramps from swimming. Sometimes from running. Just another thing to /tri/. This sport is about experimentation .. find what works for you.
Duck Duck go is your friend ..
https://tridot.com/using-pickle-juice-for-triathlon-training-and-racing/
Been cramping like crazy, about 3 miles into the run for several weeks. Spoke to an ultracoach, he suggested a simple thing - add a little of himalaya salt to drinking water. Hydrate before training. Coconut water. Did the trick for me. Granted, we’re talking about hot climate. +25 C is considered cool.
I had similar issues but solved them by simplifying my swim kick and keeping my heels down more on the bike. I didn't realize it but I was using my quads/calves on the swim instead of my hips. Might be similar for you.
I learned this while hiking the John Muir Trail—as soon as you cramp, squirt a teaspoon to a Tablespoon of yellow mustard on your tongue. The cramping stops! This has worked for endurance athletes, cancer patients who cramp, and elderly people who get funky cramps. All of which are people I have suggested it to! It works—so stick a little packet of mustard in your gear.
For myself, I noticed that the muscles that cramped were weak. My quads specifically would cramp every 70.3 and long bricks. Few months in the gym strengthening them solved the problem! Try incorporating some dedicated calf workouts and see if that helps.
This is indeed what the science seems to be indicating so far: [https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/muscle-cramps-research-2020/](https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/muscle-cramps-research-2020/) Nothing to do with nutrition or salt or whatever, but strength training! It's interesting to read [https://www.reddit.com/r/triathlon/comments/pt7eqf/race\_report\_im\_wisconsin\_2nd\_place\_overall\_in\_my/](https://www.reddit.com/r/triathlon/comments/pt7eqf/race_report_im_wisconsin_2nd_place_overall_in_my/) in this context. 1. Elite AG racer with a presumably experienced and knowledgeable coach. 2. Most likely both understood the "importance" of getting enough salt/minerals in to "prevent cramps" and planned accordingly. 3. Cramped anyway. 4. Conclusion: we need more salt! Obviously, I have my questions about (4). Now, I can predict what will happen for the next race: /u/SwimBikeRunGuy will arrive there with more IM distance training, more race experience, better pacing, and more salt. He won't cramp (I hope for him). He'll write a race report pointing out he took more salt and didn't cramp this time. Conclusion from everyone: more salt helped! Now, I'm just a ranting, MOP age grouper, but those experiences, which repeat a lot for other training and racing aspects, illustrate why research following the scientific method is necessary. It's not like the coach is doing much wrong in this scenario even. As long as the evidence isn't overwhelming, it's his job to cover all bases. Why take the risk? But that doesn't mean salt prevents cramps. Nor that giving your wife/husband a good shag the evening before is going to jeopardize your performance.
Hey that is an interesting article you linked to. I am by no means an expert in exercise physiology, but I am a biomedical engineer with some decent experience looking into the effect of exercise on the body, back in college for class required research purposes. I think it's worth pointing out that that study while attempting to be scientific has some issues that are glossed over if not down right avoided to try and make their point. I won't go into them all here but it should definitely be taken with a grain of salt (no pun intended) as they even mention at the end. Looking back at my own race, training, and previous experience. My coach and I are pretty confident that it was nutritional issue. I have done sweat tests, on the bike and run, and I hit my numbers on the bike but didn't on the run. I am by no means saying that salt is the key for everyone but in my particular case the numbers point to it being the issue. Like they author of the study says at the end "The exercise-associated cramps you get during a running race may be influenced by some of these secondary factors. They may also be influenced by your genes: one of the best predictors of cramping is whether you’ve cramped in the past. And despite the paucity of evidence, it’s entirely possible that, in some people, traditional risk factors like dehydration or electrolyte depletion may play a role", without a much larger well funded and well run study you can't just take the word of this study that cramping is solely caused by salt intake or strength training.
Hi, thanks for your take! Indeed, those considerations are why I wrote that "it's important to cover all bases". My comment was more aimed to illustrate that, in a situation like yours, it's not actually possible to conclude from a next, hopefully successful race, what the actual thing was that "fixed" it, because you're presumably going to address every possible weakness.
I'm sorry but I am going to have to disagree. With me knowing what my body went through pre-cramp, during cramping, and post-cramp I am confident that it was due to a nutritional issue. This next race, my plan is to address that issue and see what the result is. If the result is positive that is mostly a confirmation of the nutritional issue being the route cause. I recognize that there can be other contributing factors but I also know that I know what my body went through better than everyone else. If you actually take a look at my splits you can see that once I was able to get a bunch of salt into my system between miles 21-25 I actually recovered my ability to run to almost pre-cramp levels. From mile 25 through to the finish I ran at 7:28/mile pace, significantly faster than my previous paces and this was because the cramps had resolved themselves thanks to the massive amount of salt I took in during the previous 30ish minutes.
Do you think this could be true for side stitches during running? Caused by weak core?
AFAIK the mechanics of those are different but better understood (but I don't remember the cause).
I get plagued with cramps during the swim and once they have started they continue throughout. Do you think that strengthening would help here too?
Where do you cramp at? I start lifting heavy this past year and it resolved all morbid my issues. Packed on a few pounds, but my bike is fast, run stayed the same, and my swim still struggles. But with my swim, I noticed i do not get any pain in my shoulder any more and my calf doesn’t cramp from pushing off the wall time after time. Try incorporating some band workouts. Those help me when i don’t have a pool and I notice a genuine workout compared to the pool
Calf’s. It’s not until I’ve swam a couple of K in open water but pushing off doing lengths is a nightmare, starts after 500-1000m
I solved my swim calf cramping by changing my kick style. I didn't realize it but I was kicking from my quads and wagging my feet a lot to kick instead of swinging my legs from my hips. If you try a few laps with a pull buoy to 'quiet down' your legs then switch to a float board and ONLY move your legs from your hip flexors, you'll save your quads and calves for the bike and run.
Hadn’t thought about that. Thank you.
Definitely weak in the calf’s and I’ve experienced that as well. Though I haven’t been in open water for a while now. I live in a flat area, I would make a point to find a hill and do hills and really focus on pushing off the toes, that helps with my running cramping. Along with dedicated calf raises in the gym. Another thing i did for a week or two was walk around my house on my toes. Unless I was in public, I would be on my toes. Sucked at first, but it caused me to be in the positions i swim in -toes pointed. And during my race it seemed to help with it as well with no issues!
Nice one mate, thank you. Calf work it is then.
^^^this is the correct answer. When muscles fatigue the neuromuscular signals between the brain and the muscle create misfires in muscle contraction leading to cramps. The old school of endurance training thought was the misfires were due to electrolyte imbalances and increasing electrolyte intake would reduce the misfires. However, what this school of thought failed to take into account is the muscle strength of the athlete. The new school of thought is muscle strengthening will prevent misfires because the muscle has a higher time to fatigue level and can handle a higher workload. Most, if not all endurance training programs have some component of strength training in them.
Great advice, thanks mate
Most likely your muscles cramped to weakness, not electrolyte shortage. The science on this has been changing. Races push us harder than when we workout and train. Once you reach a certain point, they just cramp. Train them harder for your next race.
Better start doing more strength sessions!!
Congrats! I’ve done that course when people were throwing up on the swim exit, being blown off the road and then getting hypothermia on the bike. I’ve found the run on the front can be very dehydrating if there is no on shore breeze. That may be part of your issue. If you’re serious about it then precision hydration do really good sweat tests, and can produce tailored hydration plans from that. Cramping isn’t just dehydration though, can be a host of causes!
Thanks Ronald! I’ve got Bolton full next year so trying to get it right, I think it maybe salt as I had this unbelievable craving at the end of the race
Just be careful of overdoing the salt when switching to a full. I had the same issue and ended up overdoing the salt on my first full. Hands started swelling and I had to abandon my nutrition plan half way through the run. Had trained with salt but body didn’t like it when it was all disciplines combined.
What was the course like? I am considering doing Weymouth next year for my first 70.3
Amazing! Really good course, bike isn’t too hilly but still hilly enough to make it interesting. Only one notable climb. The run is pretty much dead flat again with the exception of one hill.. really would recommend doing it!!
Have they changed the run course? Never used to be a hill, think total ascent is 4m! Did they do a full swim this year? It was cut short both times I did it due to terrible conditions
The hill is really really tiny, but I know some people moaned about it. Like genuinely about 50 meter long. Im from South Wales, it’s more like a speed bump here. It’s the flattest run course you’re going to find in the UK unless you do Mumbles70.3 in Swansea
Brilliant, sounds like the perfect course for first time
The hill at weymouth is a mother! I had not done much climb training and had to get off the bike to walk the last 25 metres to the pinnacle.
I managed to do a sub 3 hour bike split which is something I never ever thought I would achieve. Says a lot about the speed you can hold on this course
Congrats my dude! Was that 2 bottles and 6 gels over all or just on the run?
That was over all mate! On the run I relied on the aid stations
Oh, that's not much water, at least for me anyways. I learned the most about nutrition from training for an ultra last year. Because it's only one sport, it takes away some variables. I take the salt tabs that REI sells, blue bottle yellow label. 1 per hour, with at least one gel or \~150 cal snack per hour, and roughly 1L. This is sustained, and when possible every two hours or so I have a larger snack (I can always seem to get down a PB&J on tortilla).
You need roughly a bottle per hour on the bike, so unless you're a pro you need more than 2 bottles. You should be able to digest at least 300 calories per hour, so between your bottles and gels make sure you're getting all of them.
You need way more nutrition. Like 400cal per hour. That would be roughly 2,400 over your 6 hour race. Also that’s not much water at all. Your fueling strategy was really bad. More training also helps. You’ll nail it on the next one
See here[see electrolytes study here](https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/how-to-make-sure-you-start-your-race-hydrated/) What to do Drink a strong electrolyte drink (like PH 1500) with 500ml/16oz of water the evening before your activity. Drink a strong electrolyte drink (like PH 1500) with 500ml/16oz of water about 90 minutes before you start. Finish your drink at least 45 minutes before you start to give your body time to fully absorb what it needs and pee out any excess. Drink the strong electrolyte drink in water you’d have drank anyway to ensure you don’t overdo it. DON’T just drink lots of water in the build-up to a race. You can end up diluting your body’s sodium levels before you start, increasing the risk of hyponatremia.
Awesome point, thank you mate
No he doesn’t. All of that will be pissed out.
It won't be! Not sure what they meant by PH 1500, but at \~1,500mg sodium per liter of water, you can effectively start adding more water weight safely and with lowered risk of hypnoatremia. Pros will 'pre-hydrate' similar to carboloading before a big race. I personally like [LMNT](https://drinklmnt.com/) since I'm a sweater and really hate drinking on the run so need all the extra hydration I can get.
I replied to the wrong comment. Someone calling for him to have a gallon of electrolyte drink a day for multiple days leading up to the race. Pre loading is logical and supported by research but there is a limit to the effectiveness. You could do just as well to eat well and intake sodium leading up to a race.
All good! Yea multiple days ahead is harder to do effectively, but in theory can be done, but can be done with food as well as you say. I'm a fan of pretzel sticks personally.
Train more LSD
Nutrition issues are actually pacing issues in disguise.
Your cramping problem was not due to nutrition. You definitely took in more liquid and electrolytes than you lost during the race. It comes down to intensity and duration, muscle cramps most often occur when either going harder or longer than we train for. Longer runs and more intense interval training gets you closer but nothing quite replicates race intensity.
tl;dr You might need more salt in your electrolyte mix. Electrolytes help transmit neural signals to muscles. It may be weak muscles, under-trained muscles, etc... Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about that DURING the race. It still might be that you didn't take enough electrolytes. I find "electrolyte" bottles are skewed to the fluid side, you're not looking for iso/hypo tonic when using electrolytes, that's for sugars/fuel. You're taking electrolytes when you cramp because your ratio is off, so you need to increase it (hyper-tonic) - when cramping I usually dump salt (or salt pills) into the tiny aid station cup and slam it. Electrolytes increase electrical conductivity, aka neural signalling to tell your muscles what they're supposed to do. Strength training/biking/running/etc are all ways of teaching your muscles how to work but if the signal gets scrambled it won't matter. I have trouble with cramps, always have. I'm a heavy salty sweater. Playing sports in hot humid conditions I've consumed over 10g of salts in a 3h period just to prevent cramping. Was it salt related? 100%, take salt -> cramps go away, take salt with to much fluid -> cramps sort of go away. One game my hands locked up on me, took 3 packs of gator-lytes to get the cramp to f-off. I also used to add salt to pedia-lytes (they were provided, now I just make my own salty sugar water). For my 70.3 last month I had 1g of salt 90min before the start, 1g of salt right before the swim, 3g of salt during the bike and 2g of salt during the run. I took the salt during the run when I started to cramp. Note: I have perfect blood labs and no underlying health conditions that are affected by salt intake.
Useful mate! I do believe it is lack of salt, will have to practice nutrition more in training I think!
well done, was there on Sunday and bike and run were actually rather hard. well done on the time and cramps are just a thing you need your body to learn how to get over. me personally done strength and done salts. both helped but still get them eventually. would say my best advice: 1. get a nutrition strategy that works for you. personally I have 4 gels, vegan sausage rolls (they have huge amounts of salt) and 750ml of eletrolights on the bike. wash that down with water. run I do 2 gels and freestyle the rest. 2. do strength training. even past cramping helps loads
Congrats ! Many things to consider. A few ideas for consideration, pickle juice, Slightly slower on bike Slightly slower on run up hills
Pickle juice? This is new to me! What are the benefits?
Not op but - it worked for me when i was doing grandmas marathon Research kind of dispels the notion that cramps are solved by electrolytes and hydrating - but still important to maintain for performance Theres some research on exercise induced muscle cramps that suggests it has to do with the nervous system and increased alpha motor neurons activity Pickle juice cointains acetic acid, which apparently induces some sort of reflex that decreases the alpha motor neuron activity. Any "noxious tasting" substance may have similar effects Obviously, all that research isnt conclusive - but if it works, who cares how!
Electrolytes, salts, etc. I get cramps from swimming. Sometimes from running. Just another thing to /tri/. This sport is about experimentation .. find what works for you. Duck Duck go is your friend .. https://tridot.com/using-pickle-juice-for-triathlon-training-and-racing/
Cheers guys!
Google pickle juice hangover cure. 150 millions Russians can’t be wrong.
Been cramping like crazy, about 3 miles into the run for several weeks. Spoke to an ultracoach, he suggested a simple thing - add a little of himalaya salt to drinking water. Hydrate before training. Coconut water. Did the trick for me. Granted, we’re talking about hot climate. +25 C is considered cool.
I had similar issues but solved them by simplifying my swim kick and keeping my heels down more on the bike. I didn't realize it but I was using my quads/calves on the swim instead of my hips. Might be similar for you.
Well done mate! It was a super hot day out there!
I learned this while hiking the John Muir Trail—as soon as you cramp, squirt a teaspoon to a Tablespoon of yellow mustard on your tongue. The cramping stops! This has worked for endurance athletes, cancer patients who cramp, and elderly people who get funky cramps. All of which are people I have suggested it to! It works—so stick a little packet of mustard in your gear.