I ran my first half not long ago and the very next time I ran, a few days later, I got calf cramps. Speaking to more experienced runners, it may have to do with the intramuscular glycogen; the glycogen stores can be replenished fairly quickly, but the intramuscular glycogen can take days. I tend to skip water stations or just take a little water. The advice I got is to take something with a high glycemic index early on, but that mostly it is conditioning to get the muscles more efficient. This is second hand from some guy on the net who doesn't claim to run as far as you, so grain 'o salt applies...

Just finished my third full and ran into calf cramps for the second full in a row. They hit me at about mile 17. My pace up to that point was steady and right where I wanted to be. But they killed my final 9 miles. When I finished I felt like I had a ton of energy left but my calves killed.
Has anyone out there had this problem and found a solution, any suggestions. I am willing to try anything looking forward to hearing some suggestions Thanks in advance.

My source of information for "a lot of things running" is the work of Dr Tim Noakes. He drop jaws with his comprehensive volume "The Lore of Running" about 10 years ago and this year he released "Waterlogged - The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports".

The former covers a wide variety of topics having to do with the sport of running, including the history of long distance running and training but, more to this point, the first few hundred pages of The Lore is about physiology (human) and kinetics. I bought mine used from Amazon and it was less than $20.

The section of muscle cramping is surprisingly short and I've dictated the pertinent section here (page 823, op cit):

"Exertional cramps tend to occur in people who run farther or faster than the distance or speed to which they are accustomed. Other identified risk factors for muscle cramping include older age, a longer history of running, higher body mass index, shorter daily stretching time the regular stretching habits, and a family history of cramping.

Thus the athlete his longest training run is 30 km is likely to develop muscle cramps during the last few kilometers of a standard 42 km marathon, particularly if he is an irregular stretcher and has a family history of cramping. There is no evidence of gross disturbance in blood electrolyte levels and runners with cramps nor of the theory that ingesting electrolytes (such as sodium chloride, magnesium, or zinc) will prevent cramps from developing. Dehydration also seems an unlikely candidate; runners who develop cramps during exercise are no more likely to be dehydrated then are runners who do not develop cramps during the same race. Thus, and excessive fluid intake is not likely to be of value. Indeed, hyponatremia induced by an excessive fluid intake can lead to cramping.
The first factor that appears to reduce cramping is simply more training, especially long-distance runs in those who run marathon and longer races. Attention to adequate fluid and carbohydrate replacement before and during exercise, and not running too fast too early in the raced, may also be of value.

Another factor that may be important is adequate stretching before and during prolonged exercise. The Director of University of Cape Town Sports Medicine Program, Martin Schwellnuss has produced convincing evidence that muscle cramps results from alterations in the sensitivity of the reflexes that originate from the muscle and tendon tension receptors. It is postulated that during prolonged exercise the inverse stretch reflex, the one that inhibits excessive muscle contraction becomes in active due to reduced sensory input coming from a type 1B Golki tendon organs, or as stimulatory impulses from the alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord to the type one AN type to muscle spindles is increased. Stimulation of the muscle spindles increases the likelihood that the muscles will contract. It is argued that these changes occur especially in muscles that contract in a shortened position for prolonged periods of time. Typical examples are the diaphragm muscles in all activities, the hamstrings and the quadriceps muscles in running and cycling and also the calf muscles and swimming or when sleeping at night. Only muscles that undergoes lengthening (stretching) frequently during prolonged exercise may be prevented from cramping. For it is the lengthening (stretching) of the muscle to activate the protective stretch reflex, originating from the Golki tendons.

Without regular activation of this protective reflex, the muscle can go into spasm. The Schwellnuss theory predicts that cramps should be prevented if the activity of the inverse stretch reflex is maintained during prolonged exercise. This is done by regularly stretching the tendons of the affected muscles the stretching reactivates the doorman stretch reflex."


Interestingly enough, this para is from an email from with the subject "Treating the source of your running injuries" from runnersconnect.net (I can't find the link to the page on their site - I suspect they'll add it soon):

"Calf, achilles and plantar fascia issues

Again, using the glutes as an example. We know that the glutes are one of the strongest muscle groups in our body. More importantly, research shows that they generate a majority of power during the stride - being active at strong levels at the end of swing phase, during the first third of stance, near the time of footstrike, and to aid in contraction of the hamstrings.

When they glutes are not activating, which is often the result of poor running form, this power needs to be generated elsewhere. So, the body shifts the work to a muscle like the calves. The problem is that the calf is not nearly as strong or fatigue resistant as the glutes, and the added stress is more than the muscle can handle. The result, calf strains, achilles issues and potentially plantar problems."

More, later.

This just came in my e-mail today: http://www.runningtechniquetips.com/2013/10/do-calf-raises-prevent-calf-injuries-in-running/

I haven't read it yet, but Martin is usually spot on...

This just came in my e-mail today: http://www.runningtechniquetips.com/2013/10/do-calf-raises-prevent-calf-injuries-in-running/

I haven't read it yet, but Martin is usually spot on...

LOL - I was just going to post that! :-)

I did my first run since Oct 12 and my left calf went at mile 3.x. Pissed me off. I started to feel it in the Achilles at 3.0 and then it gradually moved up and got worse until I bailed at 3.75.

I'll definitely include this article in my reading tonight and will incorporate it into my new (amended) training plan.

I STRONGLY recommend his book.

I've read through it at least twice and, as I improve and develop my knowledge outside of his book, I get more from his book as I apply that new understanding (that makes it sound like his book is pretty tweaky — well, it can be!). For example, it was only in my last read through (August timeframe) that both my head and body understood about engaging the glutes and hammies in the prep phase.

It's something like $10 for the Kindle version.

I wish could pinpoint where things go wrong. I've had that happen to me at the later stages of longer races too :-(

I tried all the usual suspects - the calf stretching, proper warm-up, etc. but it still happens. One thing that did make a difference was my sodium intake as well. I started taking salt tabs and that helped tremendously.