Calf Cramps on Bike
Looking for some feedback on an issue that has been pretty persistent for me for several years. When I bike I am most comfortable at a cadence of 75-80 which has always been ok on the flats but it sucks when I hit the hills. Just end up having to grind up the hills and its tough to carry speed, not a good problem when you live in Colorado. At the advice of many peopel I have tried working on increasing my cadence while riding but whenever I increase it to 95-100 one or both of my calves will cramp/knot up regardless of where I am at in a ride. I can be 5' or 2hrs into the ride and as soon as I pick the cadence up within 2-3 minutes I can feel the calves tightening up. I have tried heel up pedaling, heels down and everything that I can think of including a professional bike fit last year but still have the issue. Any advice would be appreciated.
Comments
Are your cleats all the way back on your shoes? Once I did this it solved all my calf issues; much less pressure on those already over-worked muscles.
x2 what Bill said. Sliding the cleats all the way back can make a huge difference in calf comfort. Keep in mind, as you do so you will need to drop your saddle height accordingly to not strain out your hamstrings. I try to match the movements. So 1 mm of cleat = 1 mm of saddle height in other words.
Next I would recommend you hit the wiki and look under stretching resources for a link on calf stretches from the old 3.0 forums. really really really common to have tight and tired calves when mixing high intensity bike and run work (helloooooo OS). Best preventative medicine is routine stretching across both of the major muscles back there (gastroc and soleus). This will help maintain normal ankle mobility and should cut back on the cramping (usually as you try to spin up your cadence you need increased ankle dorsiflexion; if your cleats are forward the muscles will already be on stretch during the down stroke; together = lots of dorsiflexion and if things are stiff the muscle taps out by cramping up).