I used to never get cramps even at Ironman distances, but started to get them on as short as events as International Distance about five years ago. I keep a buffered salt tab (Lava Salts) in a baggy on the bike/ run. Sometimes I don't use it but at the "precramp" stage when you feel the little "flash twitch" I pop a couple of them and it seems to work.
I am not a big advocate of salt supplementation, but it seems to work for me. I think people need to work on keeping their salt intake as low as possible for health reasons. I also think that big salt eaters lose more salt than people who don't eat alot of salt. and thus need more minerals and salts in their race fuel. Aloha G

I eat quite a bit of salt and my skinsuit was pretty salty at the end of the race so maybe you are right. A friend of mine told me that the more you eat salt the more you actually need salt during a race. SO maybe the real fix is to cut down on salt.

The salt tablets are working that fast, I would have thought that by the time you start having pre-cramps it is too late.



Thanks

I've hard LOTS of people complain of cramping on WF oly course when they never cramp otherwise. Another point to consider... this is a damn tough course AND it's early in the year. If any race is going to take you above your limits in intensity it's this one. This year wasn't hot, so while salt could certainly have something to do with it, it could also be that WF is one of the hardest courses in the nation. Maybe more intensity/hill work as well as racing before WF next year would help.

Cramping has been my biggest enemy the past year and has already started this season. This absolutely ruins my performance.

At Wildflower this year, I took Calcium (Citrate), Magnesium (Citrate) and Zinc supplements an hour before the start, right after T1, mile 20 and T2 along with a couple banannas. Unfortunately I still cramped up (quads), but even earlier in the bike it started (twitch). About mile 50, I realized that I could be low on salts. So I stopped at the Bee Ranch Store and pounded four packets of salt. Guess what. Helped get me to T2 and through the first three miles of the run. The muscles relaxed a for about 45 mins.

So, next event, going to throw in some salts as well. My big concern now is that I have caused some damage to the muscle because I ran through the cramps. Any thoguhts on that?

I am often pestered by cramping in shorter races, and have a low salt intake from my diet. However, being forewarned with this knowledge, I took endurolytes (by Hammergel) several times on a very hot 1/2 ironman course last weekend and never had any cramps. I also used G-Push products...as they have a higher sodium content than most of the similar products on the market. I could taste the salt in my sweat...which is unusual for me...anyway, the strategy worked well. There were over 100 DNF's on this course due to the adverse conditions...I feel very fortunate not to have been one of them. In fact, I had the 39th fastest run split, and I don't consider myself a long distance runner at all. I'm going to incorporate this strategy in the shorter distances as well and see if I can avoid cramps then, too.

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)