Tips for avoiding leg cramps while riding longer distances?
 

I enjoy riding my bike around town and back and forth to the gym were I participate in an hour+ cardio/weight class three to four times each week. I am able to fit in an extra pure cardio session (two hour plus cycling and elliptical session at a 145 average heart rate) about every other week. That's about all I have time for.

I have participated in several longer distance rides but I find that either my calves or quads begin to cramp at 20-30 miles. I rode 44 miles last weekend in an attempt to "ride my age" but came up eleven miles short due to my quads cramping up.

I have a 3 liter camelback that I use (often) to stay hydrated.

What have you found to be the best way to avoid cramping and to bridge to riding longer distances? Is it a matter of riding long and often enough that your legs acclimate to the distance or that, plus proper hydration/electrolytes? I'd like to complete a metric century this fall, with the hope of completing a full century in 2015.

Thank you for any suggestions you can provide.

Water alone will not provide the minerals, vitamins or good quality calories to keep you going.

I would try various sport drinks and other nutritional supplements. A salt tablet, or salt equivalent like Endurolytes is the first product to try. I've also had good success with other Hammer products, including: HEED and Perpetuem.

Your body can function well for 2 or 3 hours with just water. However, if an athlete is not adding the electrolytes, minerals and calories the body can begin to fatigue and the 3rd, 4th and subsequent hours on the bikes can become very difficult.

+1 on Endurolytes (or Nuun or similar)

Endurolytes - Electrolyte Replacement Supplement | Hammer Nutrition

That 3 liter camelbak -- are you finishing it? I hope so (and then some) :)

you pay the Gym staff, ask them?

water, + I have snacks occasionally . but, I'm a long slow distance touring type , not a rocket on wheels .

Cramps can come from a number if issues if your hydrating which it sounds like you are then it may just come down to conditioning for a given distance.
If the ride is going to be longer than normal length pace yourself better for the added distance till you get use to it.
It could be just that your muscles are just not conditioned for the length of repeated motion this takes time.
Pace pace pace for long distances 45 miles is not long enough to be worrying about food, water is only a slight issue at this length you are drinking so unless your starving yourself before the ride.

--

sodium, calcium, potassium & magnesium in small does the night before and during the long ride

Yes it is, and in my opinion the training is more important than the electrolytes. Cramps are poorly understood, but seem usually to be the product of overuse - stressing the muscles beyond their usual limits. In my experience, it seems to make no difference whether I drink plain water or a sports drink, but I'll tend to cramp if I make a sudden increase in training load.

I have frequently sufffered from cramps when doing longer rides, 50 miles and up, and now always use an electrolyte mix at the max recommended concentration in my water bottles. For extra long rides 100+ miles I have also taken magnesium a couple hours ahead of time and usually had few problems. Even if cramps are not well understood, a couple of things we know, hydration is important, and sweating causes you to lose salts which water alone can not replace...

Well, that may be true, but in my case hydration doesn't seem to make much difference as far as cramps are concerned. Fatigue is the issue. People differ, but I find that drinking when I'm thirsty and getting electrolytes from food works fine.

I don't care for the pop culture sports drinks... anyone make a recipe from the above? Or how to dose a water bottle to make same............

After a sauna and/or whirlpool I might be a cramp.. which goes away almost instantly with dose of ketchup on a spoon. Don't get them riding.. I do to 50 miles... 5800 last yr.

The one thing I do drink all the time is Skratch Labs hydration mix.
I have been following his recommendations and they do seem to help and work for me drink I use their Hydration Mix and eat real food on long rides, for me long is 70+ miles my normal weekend rides are 40-55 miles long, Ill go thru min. 2 bottles on the short easy rides and can get up to 4-5 on hot rides under 50 miles, those 70 - 100+ add in a few more bottles + real food not a lot - snacks - I take along which starts about an hour into the ride. No gels or other cycling made products.

Allen Lim has some interesting things videos and info related to cycling and hydration worth looking at.

Great information from all....thank you. The camelback was almost drained....about two inches remaining when I completed my ride...it was one half ice cubes/one half water when I started...warm water at the end. I consumed about 2/3rds of a small package of "Sport Beans", but that was probably not enough since the packaging said to have a full package before the ride and every 30 minutes while riding. I had a decent breakfast.

Suggestions about sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium (didn't have any bananas in the house), and a drink mix, along with more training are much appreciated.

This group is an inspiration...thanks to all for your advice!

Muscles are able to be conditioned to be stronger and go longer, so there is some value to conditioning, but the mechanisms that actually cause the muscle fibers to contract and relax are controlled by the electrolytes listed above. Muscles tire after enough contractions, and the mechanisms require a certain amount of recovery time, which may lead to greater sensitivity to improper balance of nutrients..

Since cramping indicates, at least to my amateur mind, that there is contraction without the requisite relaxation of the muscle fibers, the most likely electrolyte issue is low potassium, since it is used during the relaxation portion of the muscle function...

The following page in the fourth paragraph gives a quick high level role for each electrolyte involved with the workings of muscles. It is a product related site, and I know nothing about the product, so I don't endorse it, I just found the info I wanted to mention on their page. It does deal with night cramps, which may not be the same as cramps during activity, but the role of electrolytes is the point here.

Leg Cramps and Electrolytes

In line with my view/s.. unless very warm. I normally do not take water on a ride.. making pit stops to also break the ride up into segments. Those >30 mi.

Sugar.. yes. Quickest blood sugar cure I have found to date is choc milk.. preferably with sugar and not corn syrup. But that is hard to find.. especially in the convenience stores.

Cane sugar has a glycemic index anywhere from low 30's to 50.. depending on who you read. GI IMO is more individual specific too.

Potassium is what works for me. Bananas are not the only source or even the best source of potassium. Try dried fruit (dates, raisins, etc), yogurt, V8 juice, etc. Read the labels on whatever snacks you enjoy.

In spite of what the electrolyte industry tells us, the causes of cramping can be elusive and not always necessarily related to lytes.
I tend to have some leg cramping in the Spring, after a long Winter's rest. Seems related more to exceeding my fitness level than to my intake of fluids and nutrients, supplements, etc.

I think it's largely genetic.

I can go 40-60 mi on just water, no problem, but the more sedentary other half frequently gets muscle cramps.

Pineapple juice is her cure of choice. Those little 6 oz cans are packed with potassium. Works for her, (or at least the placibo effect does)

Dried apricots are also really high in potassium and I've used those for cramp prevention on mountaineering ventures that were a lot more intense than cycling.

Seemed to work, if you need a lighter to pack source.

Warm up before riding hard. Bring along half a banana. Drink enough fluids.

A chocolate milk and small bag of potato chips seems to help after an hour to 1 1/2 hour of riding.
Also try a Martian beverage after riding, a mix of 1/3 sangria and 2/3 diet tonic water, lime flavor;
the quinine seems to help.

Proper hydration the day BEFORE the ride, A full bladder with CLEAR Urine needing to be deposited at the start of the ride is a good sign.
DO NOT stretch when you are about to start the ride ! this does more harm than good, stretching 'cold' engines is bad news.
Ride the first mile steadily increasing work load, then get off and stretch those now WARM muscles, now ride 20 to 30 minutes
at your pace then stop and eat a good protein bar. A good load of protein, muscle milk,,etc.

Now your ready to hold your pace.

This Is most Important:
Do not get off the bike for rest, Rest ON the bike by easing off the power to say 20 to 30%, ride, drink, sit up, ride.
About a half a mile later Get It On....

2:1 ratio of Gatorade during the ride. A cup of rice ASAP as soon as the ride Is over for recovery, banana's, O.J. daily,,,, Two after the ride.

I used to suffer from cramps quite a bit the past few years. Only once this year, and I caught it before it became a disability. The worst is when I woke up in the middle of the night in pain from a nocturnal cramp in the right calf. The dogs just about hit the ceiling when they jumped in surprise from my howl of pain. I did not ride that day, so have no idea where that cramp came from. It was so bad that my ankle was sore for about two weeks and I had to stop riding for a week or so because it was too painful to twist my ankle when unclipping from the right cleat.

Nothing has worked for me, and as a diabetic, I have to be cautious of what I put into my mouth. It has become less of a problem since I installed a power meter. I can monitor my effort more accurately and keep it within a limit where I don't have to worry about cramps so much.

For some riders, its not worth the time to condition for those longer rides. Then when summer comes to a close, its all over anyways. Unless you live in a nice warm climate that allows you to ride year round, or at least mostly year round.

Why not just break up that long ride of 40 miles into 20 + 20 with at least 1 long rest period?

Train harder. Not so much long mileage as going really hard on long hills. Hill repeats, IOW.

Burger King...and try to avoid areas where they are more than 20 miles apart. :)

Experienced painful cramping in legs after long, hot rides or extensive training in other sports, usually in the middle of the night. Tried water and sports drinks, but in my case adding a magnesium supplement proved to be the answer. No cramping now. Wish I had known this 20 years ago!