Originally Posted by
Robert A
Last Saturday, I did a 67-mile, 5,800-foot ride in 90F heat. Not the hardest ride I've done, but it was up there.
At the 47-mile mark, I stopped at a farmers market for 30+ minutes, rehydrated with water and fresh-squeezed OJ, and ate a fig bar. Five minutes after restarting, the inside tops of my legs began to cramp and spasm. The pain came and went, and I was able to finish the ride, but with great difficulty.
Any idea why this happened, and how to avoid it next time?
I'm 73 and have doing this for a long time. I'd go with the 30 minute rest (idle interruption) as the culprit. You legs are full of electricity on a long ride especially in the heat. That juice fires your muscles but when you stop, those signals can scramble on cold muscle tissue. It's happened to me a few times and its always the result of idle interruption. I didn't get your age but I can tell you this used to happen to me even when I was a competitive runner in my youth.