I've always considered myself pretty fit, so it really gnarls my soul when something apparently incurable stops me from achieving perfectly reasonable outdoors sporting goals.
Of course, fitness is relative and I'd not compare myself to those ironmen and women who do the ultra-ultra long distance runs, like 250 MILES over 48hours or similar! The Woman Who Outruns the Men, 200 Miles at a Time - The New York Times
or Melbourne woman shares secrets after 'world's toughest ultramarathon' win: Badwater 135 - ABC News
for examples. No, I'd settle for a measly 50 km run, at least to begin with. In 5 hours or so. On the flat. Not particularly demanding, there are 100km mountain trail runs where the winning time is 10 hours so they can do it for twice as far as I am trying for. Through hilly terrain.
This'd mean I'd need to run 10 km per hour on average. Not so fast, 6 min clicks. But do you think I can do it? Well, yes I can, but only just, because there's this little thing that seems to get me every bloody time I run for more than about 30km. Cramps. Exercise Associated Bloody Muscle Cramps. EA(B)MC.
I've never been able to train them away. All the varied advice about how to prevent them seems not to be affective in my case. Some (bastards) people don't appear to be affected by them, or at least are less affected. Here's a list of what you might find online if you Googled it, plus some discoveries of my own.
Take salt. (This is being less and less promoted. I think it's accepted as discredited) (Though I do like salty chips when running... mmmm chippy sandwich!)
There are no definitive studies that suggest that salt will help.
Take electrolytes. (By companies that sell electrolytes)
There are no definitive studies that suggest that electrolytes will help.
Take/apply [ insert snake oil name here ] (By companies that sell snake oil)
There are no definitive studies that suggest that [ name your potion ] will help.
Better nutrition/hydration/[insert mantra here] will cure it.
Bah, nothing like that has helped me one iota.
We don't know what really causes it.
Stretching the affected muscle will relieve it. (YES, that actually works but doesn't prevent it)
It might be caused by the Golgi tendon NOT being excited enough. (This fits in with previous point)
It might be caused by the muscle spindles being over-excited.
It only affects the muscles that have been (over) exercised. (Seen this lots of times. It seems to be a wide-spread misconception. It's not true! At least not for me)
When I get to the point of muscle cramps, it seems that every other muscle in my body is on the point of cramping too. (Ever had a cramp in the base of your throat? Hurts like a monster) (This tends to go against point about the Golgi tendon reflex)
It's complicated. (Bloody well seems to be)
The fact that there is no clear-cut agreement about causes or preventative methods really does seem to underline to me that there are maybe multiple issues here. It might not be one simple cause but a whole raft of them. The fact is (for me at least) that it seems at some point to spread to affect not just the exercised muscles but others in the body. (Like, my little finger! I certainly wasn't running using it!) This points to a systemic problem, like lack of something, which is along the lines of the suggestions about salt or electrolytes to replenish ions like Calcium or Potassium. Lack of Glycogen? Something else used up when exercising? OR maybe the presence of some by-product of metabolism that builds up faster than it can be cleared. Like the dreaded (or maybe not see Truth about lactic acid, fatigue, muscle soreness - Sports Illustrated ) lactic acid. It's all speculation with not enough hard science and too many snake-oil sellers trying to make a buck out of us poor sufferers.
Huh, that thing about the lactic acid makes me think that we do not, as a whole, have a really good idea of what our body does when exercising. I certainly don't. All I know is that when those first 'cramp twinges' hit me, I'd better slow down or I'll be in a world of hurt soon, possibly dancing around with one calf muscle cramped and the other soon to follow it.
In fact, the only thing that I have found to prevent cramps is to slow down to a walk and avoid fast, strong muscular contractions (like in running...) that trigger cramps. Even that, trying to stay below some 'threshold of effort' isn't a surefire solution.
Carry me over the threshold
I once did an event where I was very, very careful not to go over my cramp threshold. I slowed to a walk whenever the twinges threated me. This meant I got to the final obstacle in a, kinda, ok-ish time. (Really, too slow, but OK, I wouldna got there faster if I'd had to stop and treat cramps.) Turned out that the final obstacle was a ramp of sand to get off the beach. I tried to walk up it and every bloody muscle in my legs, and I mean every one of them, decided to contract. And some in my abdomen as well, including diaphragm. Fortunately heart muscles seem immune. (Hmm, might be a clue there. Cardiac muscles have more mitachondria...) Anyway, I was left tottering in the verge of the ramp, unable to move for about a painful eternity. With willed relaxation and not a lot of screaming (hurt too much) I was able to get to the point where the cramps eased off and eventually I tried again, very slowly, and got up the ramp.
It's all in yer head...
Recently, I did an event where the same sort of thing happened. I got to the finish line almost cramp free, but tried to at least jog over the line (we all have our pride...) That caused a sudden spate of cramping. And now that I think about it, this has happened a few times, cramping at the finish line. Hmm, I wonder if there is a psychological contribution to the problem? You are finished so it's time to go into crampies?
You'll get over it
It's true, I do recover eventually from a propensity to cramp. It takes a few hours at least though, maybe a day. However, something happened in a recent event that made me wonder. I'd just come back from a multi-week hike and was pretty knackered, but the running event was a week after that so I figured I'd recovered enough. I got cramp twinges at the very start! I wasn't even out of the starting gate when they struck! I slowed down to avoid full-blown cramps and even walked a bit and fortunately they went way after a few minutes and I could run. They didn't come back until about 18km into the run, about when I'd normally expect them for this event, which involves going up a fairly steep hill at the start. After that I just had to run-walk the rest (another 10 k).
I hadn't done any warmups other than a walk from the car to the start. This is a little unusual for me and I wonder if that might have contributed.
The important thing is that I had the twinges but they went away and left me able to run 'normally'. If I could replicate this at the other end of the run, that'd be great! What was it that let me get over them? What actually caused them to show up so early? Dunno. My body puzzles me. Shoulda come with a proper manual...
Campy cramps too
It's not just running that'll give me (and others) cramps. After a hot day's slogging up hills carrying a pack, or a cold day's cross-country skiing, trying to get changed in a tiny tent is often an exercise in agonies. It's definitely related to physical exertion, and often comes after a lot of sweating but not always. e.g. the skiing. I have a friend my age who only just started experiencing this, whilst I've been putting up with it for decades. Maybe age-related in some?
Melbourne Marathon 2022
Oops, I did it again. Talked myself into a marathon. A combination of being careful to 'run tall' and use my gluteus maximus for more than sitting on, slow pace, LOTS of salt, gatorade at every pitstop and plenty of Gu and honey for nutrition got me through it without even a single cramp twinge. I even managed to speed up a few times when otherwise in the last ten kilometers of doldrums. I think that the focus on my 'stance' helped a lot. I could feel the shift in which muscles were suffering when I straightened my spine, pushed my hips forward more, stopped slouching and relaxed calves a bit.
RUNMELBOURNE Half Marathon 2023
I ran a fairly decent (for me) half marathon the other day. It was very cold day and I kept the pace at about 5 mins 30 per km to get in under 2 hrs for the 21 K. No cramps. Did start to feel an ache in my calf toward the end though, but more like a microtear than a cramp. This was after a year of fairly consistent treadmill training in all heartrate zones (i.e. low aerobic, aerobic, threshold and "way too bloody fast"). I didn't take extra salt and drank half water half gatorade and not a terrible lot of that. I wonder if the cold or the training made the difference? Probably training.
Food me Marge
I've recently (2024) had another hint that nutrition might play a larger part than I'd given it credit for. I went on a 90 minute run that turned into a 3 hour one for reasons of inexplicable desires to run up and down a hill. I didn't have any nutrition and hadn't had much breakfast before I went.
By the time I got home I had well and truly bonked and was starting to get cramp twinges. The coincidence of the bonking (feeling of running out of energy) and the cramping made me think back to all the previous cramping incidences and although cramping doesn't always correlate with feeling of very low energy, it frequently does. Could the idea of lack of readily available ATP to allow muscle relaxation be correct? (I know that sounds backwards but I'm assured it's a thing) Can I prevent it by sucking down the glucose more often? I've got a couple of adventures coming up (Melbourne Marathon, Puffing Billy Half and GPT100 160 km stage event) so I can test the idea then. I'm gunna be so sick of GU though (not to mention being broke from buying that much) so I'll test out lower cost ideas like mini Picnic bars and Kit-Kats and Jubes and Mars bars and Stroop Waffles (like Honey Stinger Waffles but sugar syrup rather than honey) as well.