help with leg cramps

s35keith

I'm looking for some advice from all you experienced runners. I ran my second marathon yesterday and I was running great (for me) on pace for a PR at exactly the time i trained for. Then after 21 miles my legs cramped up bad (it was like someone shot me in the calf), I fought through it with walk/jog but it killed my time.
I thought I hydrated well leading up to the race. I drank water at every stop, I had a banana and 4 GU's leading up to the cramps. I have never had this happen during any of my long runs before. It was warm (not hot) out and cloudy but I think the humidity level was high.
Any ideas/suggestions on how to;
1. Help prevent leg cramps in the first place
2. How to work them out during a race if they do happen

Any/all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

ATT949

Sorry to hear about the issues with cramps but it sounds like you dealt with it pretty well.

Perhaps you drank too much water?

I raise that issue because it's a comment in Noakes under the "Muscle Cramps" subhead and it's an interesting theory.

"Noakes", Dr. Tim Noakes, is the author of "The Lore of Running" and it's a superb reference by one of the foundational researchers on medical aspects of running.

While Noakes discusses water consumption in depth in his book, his most intriguing mention of water in the discussion of muscle cramps is to state that cramps could be caused by hyponatremia. I suspect, however, that you're not in the cohort that's susceptible to hyponatremia (victims of hyponatremia tend to be women who run marathons very slowly and who drink, drink, drink all along the way).

More likely is that you hit a cramp the old fashioined way - "Exertional cramps tend to occur in people who run farther or faster than the distance or the speed to which they are accustomed." (pg 823 op cit). Noakes also alludes to a genetic component and to "irregular stretching", as well. In the same paragraph, Noakes writes "Dehydration also seems an unlikely candidate ; runners who develop cramps during exercise are no more likely to be dehydrated than are runners who do not develop cramps during the same race."

Noakes describes the work done by this researcher:

http://www.ssisa.com/pages/science--research/prof-martin-schwellnus/?prev=1

which says, as best I can summarize it, is that the parts of our body that tell the muscle to contract overpower the parts of our body the tell our muscles to relax. Notes writes "Only muscles that undergo lengthening (stretching) frequently during prolonged exercise may be prevented from cramping."

I don't know if this will help your situation but what Noakes described is what hit me when I when I ran a half marathon in February. I got hit cramping in my right calf* at mile 7 and I finished the race by switching to heel striking and by stopping three times to massage the muscle.

For myself, I was both undertrained and sore when I started the race so I wasn't surprised that I had problems. My take on it is that I need to be better prepared next time.

Was there anything in your training plan that might've led to your not being adequately prepared for the distance?



*it was the peroneus longus, per below, and it hurt like the ****ens
http://attainablegrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/peroneus.jpg