Originally Posted by DannoXYZ
Don't forget you need to take in a lot more electrolytes than normal people. In general, you'll need about 1000mg of sodium per hour to match what's being sweated away. On a century ride, you may end up needing 6000mg of salt. That ends up putting your total daily intake at THREE TIMES what normal people eat. If you're not getting this much salt in your diet, that's most likely the source of your cramping.
There's a bad side-effect of always thinking "more water is better" without taking in elecrolytes as well. Only drink just enough to replenish what you've sweated away. A little more won't hurt, but a lot more will cause excessive peeing. Same with coffee. You end up peeing out a lot of your body's salts and end up with a hyponatremia condition. The rates of athletes (especially runners) having this condition is on the rise as well as the deaths caused by it. I always carry some salt-tabs in seat-bag. Hikers use these a lot to prevent cramping and dehydration. You can get them at any sporting-goods store like Big-5. I eat one every hoiur if I'm drinking just plain water.
i won't go into my problems with cramping. i will say that i never used to salt my food or anything that i ate; i never really could taste it, it had a really bad reputation, and there is so much salt put in everything you eat that i figured i was getting enough. i started salting my food and it's solved a lot of my cramping problems. since then, i call myself the only person in america who doesn't get enough salt. i think danno has a good point; try taking more salt and see if it helps. i don't use salt tablets, but i salt a whole lot of what i eat now, and the cramping is noticeably reduced