Originally Posted by
DaveLeeNC
That remains my best guess as well. Additionally I TRULY HOPE that is the issue. I know how to address this one.
OTOH, there are two wildcards out there
1) On at least a half dozen occasions I have been sitting in my easy chair and and experienced a sudden onset of a serious cramp on the inside of my left thigh (one of the places that was an issue on my ride). At a bare minimum this was at least 4 hours after my last exercise. More likely 6, 8 or the previous day. This shows up in a VERY specific/small place and it is/was the same/exact place as the first onset of cramps on Sunday. Interestingly now that I am almost 48 hours past the end of the ride, that same place is still sore. It isn't exactly a muscle soreness like after excessive exercise, but more like somebody hit it with a hammer really hard yesterday (feels like a bruise). But keep in mind this wasn't the only cramp location, OTOH it was definitely first.
2) I have a well established history of pushing my legs past their capabilities. I have run for 3'ish hours on a hot day, went past the 10 mile marker at 59:50 (it was at Boston and that was the first marker that I saw - I was horrified and slowed down instantly), I took in ZERO water or anything else (I could never drink when I was running) for the entire race, and was doing 9:30 minute miles at the end. I felt like crap, my legs didn't work, but I had NO CRAMPS. OTOH, I didn't have any cramps after 3 hours on Sunday either. BTW, this was the year of Rosie Ruiz and she didn't pass me
I hope that this is simply a conditioning thing. I worry that either something else is going or that it is an age thing.
dave
Well, age doesn't help, but no it's not really an age thing except that it gets harder to make oneself do it the older one gets (69). Which is probably the reason most folks get sedentary with age. As you saw, it's not dehydration, etc. That's been well proven in med tent studies. No difference in electrolyte or hydration levels between crampers and finishers.
The cramping later is also very common. Then there are night cramps, also very common. Doctors call these "idiopathic cramps." (google) My wife has suffered from these for years. Me, never. Identical diets, exercise, etc. I'm currently trying 500mcg sublingual B12/day. So far, no cramps but we're only a few days into this study. You can also try
The Stick after a hard workout.
The soreness after cramping is normal. That's the big reason you want to avoid cramping. Doesn't help fitness at all. Sucks.
Again, you might try squats, etc., as suggested earlier. They'll make you sore, too. You just think you're in shape. You get in shape, you should go out for some age-class bike races.