Post two for the day, whew! What’s going on in that crazy head of his you might ask?
Two mochas, sunshine, and a )!*#^$%@#%ing rest day, that’s what.
Friend of mine (Thanks Evan) , brought up a question I get asked a LOT, but haven’t written on yet, great topic.
The question is, (paraphrasing of course), “I did a long race, and cramped like a mutha-trucka (see what I did there?). I was constantly taking in water, sugar, and every electrolyte known to man, but still cramped.What gives?”
As I said, this happens a ton, to a lot of people. One of the most prevalent theories as to the cause of cramps (I say theory because nobody really knows why your muscle goes kamikaze right when you're about to pass that hot girl you want to impress), is that they are due to inadequate levels of sodium/potassium/magnesium. The above solutions of Gatorade/Heed/Endurolytes SHOULD take care of those problems, but often doesn’t. Why? I believe that there could be two possible culprits at work here:
1. Elecrolyte balance issue could be chronic, not acute.
2. Legs are not quite prepared for the punishment.
Chronic electrolyte level/dehydration.
I am a big fan of the your-body-is-like-a-car analogy, (I’m a Ferrari and you’re a Ford Taurus, you big pussy) and it works fairly well here as well. Think of electrolytes as oil. If you run your car really low on oil for a long time, and then expect it to work great when you throw in a couple quarts and floor it, you are sadly mistaken. Luckily though, bodies repair themselves, and so if you spend say, a week, making sure your electrolyte levels are up, you should be all right. The same is definitely true of hydration. If you drink nothing but beer for four days, and then drink a ton of water the night/day before the race, even if you’re pissing clear, you are still dehydrated.
The Punisher
Oddly enough, many people have cramps in the beginning of the season, and few at the end, why? All the salt in the world doesn’t make up for several hours of beating your muscles to a bloody pulp with a sledgehammer. It’s extremely unlikely that your off season training has prepared you for the violence exacted upon your pale doughy flesh in that first race. Studies suggest that you are NOT PHSYCHOLOGICALLY CAPABLE of hurting yourself as much in practice as you can in a race, so don’t you go crying into your warm milk. This is especially true if you have spent a lot of time building your “base” with low intensity training. Great for the heart, but not going to prepare your muscles for high intensity.
Prescription:
1. Make electrolytes/hydration an important part of your routine in the DAYS leading up to your race, not just the morning of/during.
2. PUNISH yourself a few times before your races. I would suggest changing one long training ride into an “Over-Under” session each week you don’t have a race.
An Over-Under is done by riding/running/skiing at threshold pace, and crossing your threshold for say, a minute, and then slowing back down TO THRESHOLD PACE. The idea is to sit just Under your threshold, then go Over it to build lactate levels, and learn to recover at just Under. It’s like intervals, but the “recovery” period is still FAST. Think PAIN.
20 minutes L1 ->(5 minutes L3-> 1 minute L4-> 5minutes L3-> 1 minute L4, etc., working up to 10 rounds)-> 15 minutes L1cooldown.
As it says, work your way up with these. You obviously can’t go out, work at threshold, and then do 1 minute as hard as you possibly can, and then hope to continue at threshold pace. If you can, that isn’t your threshold pace, dummy. It’ll take a little getting used to how hard you can push the Over’s while maintaining your Under speed. Done properly, these are AWESOME for your fitness, just about the most specific workout I’ve ever seen.
Will these totally prevent you from getting cramps of any kinds? Of course not, but it'll at least reduce the number of times Fasty-McHotterson passes your ass teeth-clenched and clutching your hammie while you wish you'd asked for salt on your margarita the first night of your pre-race bender.
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