Calf cramping during swim!
Twice this week I have had a MAJOR calf cramp at the finish of my swim. This has never happened before, but was not fun - my calf balled up in a knot and the pain was excruciating. Both days prior to these swims, I had fairly taxing bike rides, so that may be a factor here but I'm not sure. My other guess is something I'm lacking in the diet (potassium maybe?).
Does anyone have experience with this or any guess as to what may be causing this? Today after the occurrence I ran 6 miles, 3 of which were Z2 without incident...but I still have tightness. My fear is that if this happened in an open water race....well let's not go there!
0
Comments
Did you swim or ride the day of the swim, ie, before the swim?
I generally don't do any leg work the day of a swim, before the swim, as I get foot cramps. And when I'm carrying a lot of fatigue (ie, deep into IM training) I have to be VERY careful about when and how I swim, to the point where I basically use a pull buoy all of the time because any kicking can set off a foot cramp.
Sorry, not very helpful, but I think it's a function of general fatigue and timing of bike/run in relation to the swim workout. Things should improve closer to your race as you rest up and become less fatigued.
Now I swim in the mornings and do that other stuff in the evening and the incidence of these types of cramps is way down. I'll still get them the morning after a monster workout or other times where I'm just particularly thrashed-- it's always fatigue related.
Things I'll do to avoid them are self-massage before the swim, i.e. a brief session with the marathon stick, proper hydration and just going easy when kicking off the wall on turns.
Yes! So nice (in a sick way) to hear others suffer from these cramps. It doesn't seem to matter when i do my swim, I will get a foot cramp if i kick continually vs a flutter every few strokes. More likely get calf cramps when in a wetsuit in open water if i kick. Besides...it also wears me out more
I was getting these until I started using Salt Sticks. Increasing my sodium intake seemed to resolve the issue.
--Larry
I swear by lava salts, or meta salts to help cramping reduction, especially when sweating. I also love a product called CALM which is a calcium and magnesium mix that I drink at night.