Any way to diagnose and or prevent this?
No idea, but Iāve definitely suffered from this same issue twice. Both times left me with a recurring smaller cramp for the next week and a half to two weeks that prevented any training.
First time was last yearās Peachtree Road Race (10K). I think it was a combination of taking two days off prior to the event, having a carb heavy meal the night prior to the event, and then not having enough electrolytes the day of the race (it was very hot, so I probably drank too much water). The cramps flared on a long downhill stretch.
Second time was earlier this year in Hawaii climbing down Diamond Head. Less movement than normal with a long flight, lots of carbs on the trip (the Hawaiian diet is what, 90% white rice?), and probably again not enough electrolytes. I was totally fine going up to the peak, but very quickly āblew upā going back downā¦even at an easy walking pace.
Reading about this āMonday Morning Sicknessā seems to correlate VERY closely with my past issues. Itās definitely provided me with some food for thought on how to prevent this leading up to future races.
Were you tapering at the time? How long was your taper period?
I was a collegiate swimmer. My freshman year, my coach did a 2 week taper with me. By the time I got to NCAAs, my legs were COMPLETELY shot. I could barely move them in the pool and swam horribly. We determined I needed about a 3 day taper after that! I know its not cramping, but maybe it could be playing a roll?
Interesting to see this thread now, I had my first incidence of this a few years ago, 2015 I think. I scoured the web looking for info and found almost nothing, except a few forum threads where other cyclists were discussing the same phenomenon. The longest-running, most informative thread seems to be this one, but even there no real concrete answers, despite some people making several visits to various specialists.
One thing Iāll say is that these are not really cramps, thatās just the closest thing I can think of to describe them. Anybody whoās gone through this will tell you that these ācrampsā are very different from normal cramping caused by over-exertion or lack of fitness. Interesting that this thread discusses it in the context of running, since all the other discussions Iāve read were from cyclists (although walking/running downhill can definitely trigger an attack).
In all my searching, Iāve yet to find any diagnosis in humans that matches the symptoms of this. The only thing that matches, is tying up in horses. Thereās definitely a diet-related component to it in my experience, the first few times this happened I was coming off a heavy training block, and during a holiday weekend visit with family I was not only off the bike for a few days but was eating lots of junk during that time. It seems to be some combination of a sudden drop in training volume combined with high carb intake. Iāve also noticed that several of my episodes were preceded by travel (either plane or car). Hydration/electrolytes may or may not come into play, I canāt say for sure in my case.
My first few āminorā episodes were after a weekend off the bike eating/drinking too much as mentioned above. First time back on the bike, the ācrampsā started within a couple of minutes and I had to stop the ride. This lasted for a few days, I would keep trying to get on the trainer and spin easily till the cramps started, stop spinning, repeat. Eventually you hit a point where you can ride through the pain and once I do that, they just stop and I can resume normal training.
I had one episode that was much worse in severity/duration. I was in probably the best shape of my life, and crashed out of a bike race. Frame was damaged and I was pretty banged up, so I was completely inactive for several days (and eating tons of junk out of frustration). One morning I got up, walked around a bit, and then when I sat down BAM the cramps started out of nowhere, except they were much worse this time. I could feel the cramps ātravelā, moving between the different muscles in my thighs. Pretty much any time I bent my knee, the cramps would start again, and for several days in a row I would wake up in the morning to severe cramps. This episode lasted a while, probably 8-10 days. Part of that I think is because I hadnāt made the connection to diet yet, also because I wasnāt getting on the bike or doing anything else active. Eventually I realized that rest just prolongs the episode; to get through it I had to eventually start trying to ride (even though it would be just a few minutes of soft-pedaling at a time to start).
Iāve gradually learned how to prevent these episodes. The biggest thing is to avoid a sudden drop in training volume/intensity, especially if Iāve been doing VO2max work. Multiple rest days or even a few short/easy recovery rides in a row can be enough to cause an episode, especially if Iām not being careful about my diet. Fortunately Iāve learned to recognized warning signs, thereās a certain feeling my legs get (I call them tremors), that tell me that I need to ride in the next day or so or Iām going to be in trouble. And if I know Iām going to be off the bike for a while (eg for vacation), I need to gradually reduce my training in the week before. The absolute worst thing would be to try to cram extra training in right before leaving on a trip.
Nutritionally, I make a point of trying to match carb intake to training load, when I reduce training, I need to reduce carb intake to match. I also make more effort to stay hydrated throughout the day and keep my eloctrolytes up (I take magnesium and potassium supplements).
The only real problem is unplanned interruptions in training due to sickness or other reasons, when I canāt cut training gradually. It also makes tapering for an A-race tricky because if I back off training too much Iāll be in trouble. The best taper Iāve round is to ride every other day and make sure there are at least a few hard efforts in each ride. But taking a rest day right before an A-race is always scary.
I see this a lot in my practice. Exercise associated muscle cramping is related to altered neuromuscular patterning.
For you personal examples, there are several parts that indicate it is not an electrolyte or water issue.
It is not systemic - systemic cramping would be the expected result of full body loss of electrolytes. This has not been shown in research.You were running downhill for a long period - most likely a large increase in total ground reaction forces on every step. Both of your blow ups were related to going down hill which is when there is a large increase in the forces and will expose problems. For hamstring it is typically more related to the swing phase of gait when you are working eccentrically more. The increase in quad recruitment on the downhill portion is to prevent knee collapse from initial control to midstance.You were fatigued. Fatigued states alter the muscular firing pattern.Dehydration has not been related to exercise associated muscle cramping in any well designed studies. Nor has the opposite.Altered neuromuscular patterning is very common in triathletes due to the interaction between the disciplines. Muscle firing patterns in running and walking are governed in some ways volitionally along with central pattern generators in the spinal cord. The amount of muscle activation used based on the pattern of running you use along with the state of the muscle spindle, golgi tendon organ, fatigue state, environmental conditions, and previous activity. If the muscle spindle is activated it drives up muscle activation while the golgi tendon organ does the opposite. This balance can be impacted by the activation of antagonist muscles (like the hamstring for the quad) or synergistic muscles (like posterior tibialis in force absorption during loading response of running gait) along with incomplete activation of the inhibitor (the golgi tendon organ) through stretch of the tendon.
So your issue is one related to getting off the bike which has driven up quad activation, ridiculous fatigue level, over activation of the quads, most likely poor recruitment of synergists, and your gait pattern overall.
Finally, even an easy walking pace is a large load on the body which we just donāt realize that.
Preventing these issues is fairly simple, but I would start with a clear understanding of your gait pattern and muscle strength.
Hi @jsk,
did you ever manage to figure out a long term solution?
I have EXACTLY the same issue.
Been doing TrainerRoad structured ERG cycling a lot (5 times a week - long ride weekend), running (2 times a week - long run weekend) and weight lifting (3 times a week) for a long period of time.
A month ago I went on vacation (flying 3 hours) not giving any thoughts to my nutrition eating a lot of carbs etc. After a couple of days my quads blew up just after some easy walking (a bit downhill but maybe only -2%-5% decline). I could barely walk back to the car. I had to rest in bed for a couple of hours after that I could start using my legs again. Morning after, I had almost no signs of the āattackā. But then exactly the same thing happened. That kept on for the entire vacation.
After I came home I resumed my cycling and the issue was GONE.
Then this weekend I went to paris for a half marathon. Went on Thursday and repeated the same high carb diet / taper until the run Sunday. After 4 k I felt the pain starting and after 17 k i had to pull out barely able to walk home to the hotel.
Weird thing is that on Friday and Saturday I walked 25 k and 22 k with no signs at all.
The TR workout leading up to both of these cases were VO2 max / Tempo rides and of course, in both cases, I cramped in an extra session which was the first one I would have missed due to the travel. In both of these sessions I actually had to quit early due to fatique - These are the only two sessions I have had to do that for.
I am 100% sure it has nothing to do with bad fitness or lacking strength as I have never been in better shape or as strong before.
I have done a lot of running before completing half marathons before and also done taper periods before with no issue at all.
It seems to only have occurred after I picked up cycling.
In running I have never been able to train as intense or with as high of a training load as I do now, since some sort of āinjuryā always will keep my running training load some what stable. Shin splints, plantar fasciitis etc. types of lower leg issues. That was actually the reason why I picked up cycling.
Sorry for the long story 
I have a marathon coming up and it seems that I should either just quit/scale down cycling. But I really love it so that I would not like to do.
Or just quit a true taper period which maybe will inhibit my race performance.
I hope you have found somewhat of a success story that you can share.
Have you tried picking up more salt, salt in your recovery shake, salt with your meals ?
I could cramp myself silly in my arms before
From just having a shower or rolling over in bed
No cramps now more salt