Toe up , heel down.

You really shouldn't stretch a cramp. That can lead to tearing the muscle.

Reciprocal inhibition. Toe up, heel down. It's the best way to instantly fix a cramp. If it becomes a frequent thing, or worse at night, think about supplementing some minerals in your diet - specifically magnesium.

The company - it's the nerve - has some interesting research on cramping basically saying it is destabilization of the nerve and their drink fixes that. However, it's not the best tasting thing.

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Yeah, I don't stretch, I just stop and wait it out. Maybe try to massage it a bit or dig into the spot with my fingers.

Trying to figure out what to do in the middle of a race!

If it happened while I was swimming, and I was wearing a wetsuit, I'd probably just stop kicking and let it pass. If I wasn't wearing a wetsuit, well then I'd probably drown.

I have some via their beta test group. Disappointed to say that it has done nothing for my leg cramps i get after biking 2.5 hours at 70.3 effort. :(

It happen to me last year at Oceanside 70.3... Bad calf cramp 3/4 into the swim. I slowed down so much because of the pain my body got super cold cause I wasn't moving... Sad!!!

Now prepping for Oceanside next weekend, I cramped while swimming again lol..

I ready they are handing out the it's nerve drink there. Want to see if it helps!

They where giving out samples at TriMania. I think if you sign up for their email list you can also get free samples. It is supposed to work as a preventative for up to five hours or to relieve a cramp within minutes. I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Carry a few $0.13 condiment packets of vinegar or yellow mustard. Cramps are mediated by the spinal motor neurons. Vinegar should work similarly to pickle juice. And actively bend your toes/foot up (dorsiflex), like someone here said.

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.

Used to have calf cramp in every race coming off the bike. Moved my cleats all the way back to offload the calf on the bike, and have not had a single calf cramp off the bike since. As I told a bike fitter a while back when doing a re-fit, you can alter anything but don't touch my cleat position.

During the swim, I luckily only get it in the pool due to the push-off. Need to be very careful at every turn, one leg is worse and I normally try to push off on the other. It will otherwise cramp in either the calf or under the foot. Never happened in a sea swim.

Pickle juice. Maybe sip a little right before your wave goes off.

My cramps off the bike usually involve my quads, or the entire leg, both legs at the same time. Haven't been able to solve it for years..

Where do I get pickle juice? Do I buy a jar of pickles and drink some of the juice?

My old soccer and wrestling coaches had a jar of the brine on standby during practices and tournaments, so that's the traditional method. Looks like you can actually buy it pre-bottled now.

http://www.picklepower.com/

I get a small jar of pickles before a race.... start eating it a few days out, finish the pickle juice night before and morning off my event.

Simple enuf, I get cramps at times during a hard ride, I'm going to give this a try.

Thx

I'm giving pickle power shots a try!!

I've had this issue before, toe up heel down. I've also had calf cramps anytime I run or bike or both for more than 3 hours. A friend turned me on to BASE salts. They're gone. Did IMLou last year and not even a twinge. Give them a shot.

 
They have pickle juice in shots at my local grocery store, haven't used them as I don't typically have cramping issues. A riding buddy of mine cramps all the time, he fills a refillable Hammer Gel flask with pickle juice and it seems to help him. If my calf cramps when I swim it is because the water is damn cold, I just quit kicking until it eases off then I go easy on the kicking. Once I am out of the water and warmed up a bit on the bike I typically don't have further issues.

When I was in school we did a lot of event coverage with ATC's. I learned a pretty good trick for cramps, mustard packets. Seems weird, but we all carried the typical mustard packets in our bag and it worked. When I did IM Boulder last season, I threw a few mustard packs in my special needs bags - just in case. It's an easy to carry, already packaged solution vs pickle juice or the ITN drink etc. As far as long term stuff is concerned - Im sure examining nutrition might be worthwhile and like previously mentioned, dry needle or ART would be good.

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Did Oceanside today... I drank a shot of pickle power before the swim... I was feeling confident that this would finally solve my cramping problems. The water was cold and both my calves cramped at the last 200 yards, not too bad tho... Got out of the water and both thighs cramped like crazy. Took me 12 mins to get out of t1. I downed 2 more flasks of pickle power and started the bike. Bike went well (I usually don't cramp on the bike).

I started the run and downed another pickle power shot. I also downed a ItsTheNerve just for good measure ... I still cramped during the run but it was manageable. I ran about 7:35 pace for the first 8 miles which is pretty strong for me.. But the cramps got worst and slowed me down. At mile 11, cramps got pretty bad so I picked up another shot of ItsTheNerve but it didn't do anything for cramps.

My conclusion is that the pickle power might have helped but didn't cure the cramps. I may need to drink more than the 4 shots! ItsTheNerve didn't seem to help (and tasted terrible)!!!

I might give pickle juice a try instead of pickle power shots.

Sorry to hear that your cramping didn't get under control at Oceanside. Happy to hear that you took a sample of #itsthenerve on course, but am bummed to hear that it didn't work for you. As you can imagine, there can be several factors that impact a product's efficacy. Without knowing exactly what you were taking during the race, it's hard to see if there was something you consumed that prevented the signal from traveling through your TRP channels to help get your nerves back under control. Would love to talk with you offline to better understand how you managed your race and to see if there may be other factors we're working around.

I will tell you that pickle juice, mustard, garlic, mint, etc. are all known Trans Receptor Potential (TRP) channel activators. The founder of #itsthenerve won the Nobel Prize for mapping TRP channels, and identified the two specific channels that go to the sensory nerves that impact your muscles. They worked for 4 years to identify a proprietary blend of spices that were known to be the most efficacious and long-lasting for the A1 and V1 TRP channels. Over the past year, we have optimized that formula more than 12 times to land on a final product that balances taste with efficacy. We know that the taste may not be for everyone but... when you experience the benefits of the product working, we have found that the taste sort of grows on you :-)