Beaker

Been riding road for the last few years, and group rides/occasional races the last 1-2yrs. There's a great group ride near me that does a short, but intense workout in the local hills on Tuesday evenings. That means ~25miles and 2500ft of climbing at pace. The distance and elevation are no big deal for me. Also, I've ridden in crits, so I'm not unaccustomed to intense efforts. What's unusual about this ride though is that maybe just under haf the times that I do it I find I'm fighting off calf cramps on the final climb. I rarely cramp up on other rides which are longer, sometimes hotter or in a race. So what gives? Things I've considered:

- I normally ride early in the day, this is an evening ride, typically after a long day at work that will start at 6:30am. I try to hydrate in the afternoon and will sometimes eat a banana or pop a couple of endurolytes an hour or so before the start

- I'm riding higher cadence than solo or with friends. Having said that, I've not noticed this frequently on other group rides/faster efforts where I'm riding at higher cadence.

- Efforts are intense, I ride a lot of the time in z4 to z5. Yes, I'm probaby a little out of shape right now, but that's why I do this. I also get through a prodigious amount of liquid during this ride (1.5 bottles of HEED).

- Something to do with my cleat position???

What are your thoughts on why I could be getting these calf cramps on a relatively short, intense ride?

Thanks in advance.

Carbonfiberboy 

All that climbing may be putting more stress on your calves than you are used to. I used to have a problem with that. I did 1 set of 30 reps of 1-legged standing calf raises on each calf most every evening for a couple weeks. Problem went away. Now I do them once or twice a week. Problem has not returned.

You could try moving your cleats back, but I hesitate to recommend that because I think it robs power. Better to make your calves stronger IMO.

alanknm

I've got a similar problem. My calf muscles cramp up near the end of a ride on a high cadence climb. I'll try the 1-legged standing calf raises to see if that will help.

Beaker

Thanks for the replies. I suspect some of this is just conditioning, but I'll get back to some calf raises.

jbholcom

I'm fighting the same thing. I started taking 250mg of Magnesium and eating at least one banana daily in addition to my normal diet. I haven't seen any results from the Magnesium yet, since it's only been a week. It may be as simple as not getting enough fluids in my system.

jbholcom

Went to a LBS at lunch and picked up some Endurolytes from Hammer Nutrition. One of the guys at the shop said it personally helped him get over his calf cramping. We'll see.

Beaker

For my "regular" cramps - i.e. Longer distance in the heat etc - endurolytes really help

Beaker

PS - doing a little digging on line, I'm starting to consider a shade lower saddle height, and also think about whether I'm pedaling more with my toes. Will report back in a bit when I've had a chance to try some of this stuff out.

https://www.ultracycling.com/training/cramping.html

Carbonfiberboy 

Good idea. "Heels down, pedal round." With your heel on the pedal, your knee should lock completely out with your heel still barely touching the pedal. Some folks go 4mm higher. I use MTB shoes, so I will get higher saddle with heel touching than someone would wearing road shoes. With road shoes, I'd probably have just a little clearance. Pedal with your hams, too. Takes strain off the pedal coming down.

Beaker

Well, so far so good. Tacked on some more miles for 41miles and 3900ft this time. I did some more stretching, lowered my saddle a couple of millimeters and focused on not pedaling with my toes down. No cramps - yay. Still I ended up spending 41mins with my HR in zone 5. Ouch (the good kind).

alanknm

I've been trying Endurolytes this week and it really does seem to help. Interesting bit about setting the saddle a little higher with MTB shoes. That's exactly what my setup is on my hybrid. It's different from my road bike which has the saddle set by my fitter to be a little lower.