Re: Severe cramp sufferer.

"Jeremy Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:op.ssrhj7sx4al0tm@office...

Quoted message said:

Peter Goddard said:

Hello,

I always seem to suffer from cramp about 40 miles into a ride.
Despite eating bananas and taking water and PSP22 it never seems to get
any
better. Worsened, as you might expect by going up hills. I'm going to
try GO
Ergogenic next time but I'm running out of ideas. Is there anyone out
there
who suffers as acutely as I do and what have you tried that really works?

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

It used to be predominantly Mash. As I'm getting cramp regularly, I'm trying
to make it as Spin as possible. As the hills get steeper, spin turns to mash
turns to cramp.

Quoted message said:

Do you stretch before & after riding? I have a good leg-stretching regime
due to another sport, and very rarely get cramp despite a sometimes lax
attitude to hydration & nutrition.

I stretch before and at each stop. I'm now concentrating on hydration but I
suspect I'm more presupposed to it than most and therefore want a suitable
remedy.

Cheers

Peter.

Quoted message said:

--
jc

Peter Goddard said:

"Jeremy Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:op.ssrhj7sx4al0tm@office...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

It used to be predominantly Mash. As I'm getting cramp regularly, I'm
trying
to make it as Spin as possible. As the hills get steeper, spin turns to
mash
turns to cramp.

Stick with it. If you've been mashing, you've built up the large "fast-
twitch" muscles which (AIUI) are more prone to cramp anyway. Spinning
will start to build up the "endurance" or "slow twitch" muscles, but
it will take a while.

I forget the technical anatomy terms for this stuff, but I can dig
up a few links if required.

--
jc

"Jeremy Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:op.sstbr4nh4al0tm@office...

Quoted message said:

Peter Goddard said:

"Jeremy Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:op.ssrhj7sx4al0tm@office...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

It used to be predominantly Mash. As I'm getting cramp regularly, I'm
trying
to make it as Spin as possible. As the hills get steeper, spin turns to
mash
turns to cramp.

Stick with it. If you've been mashing, you've built up the large "fast-
twitch" muscles which (AIUI) are more prone to cramp anyway. Spinning
will start to build up the "endurance" or "slow twitch" muscles, but
it will take a while.

I agree. I haven't suffered a cramp since I started working in lower gears.

"Peter Goddard" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Jeremy Collins" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:op.ssrhj7sx4al0tm@office...

Quoted message said:

Peter Goddard said:

Hello,

I always seem to suffer from cramp about 40 miles into a ride.
Despite eating bananas and taking water and PSP22 it never seems to get
any
better. Worsened, as you might expect by going up hills. I'm going to
try GO
Ergogenic next time but I'm running out of ideas. Is there anyone out
there
who suffers as acutely as I do and what have you tried that really
works?

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

It used to be predominantly Mash. As I'm getting cramp regularly, I'm
trying to make it as Spin as possible. As the hills get steeper, spin
turns to mash turns to cramp.

Quoted message said:

Do you stretch before & after riding? I have a good leg-stretching regime
due to another sport, and very rarely get cramp despite a sometimes lax
attitude to hydration & nutrition.

I stretch before and at each stop. I'm now concentrating on hydration but
I suspect I'm more presupposed to it than most and therefore want a
suitable remedy.

Cheers

Peter.

I'm very susceptible to cramp. I recently did JOGLE with no cramp at all
riding 60 to 70 miles a day whereas previously I've had cramp after as
little as 15 miles (but been able to ride it out). I took a Quinine Sulphate
tablet every day. I'm pretty sure this was at least partly responsible, the
other part being doing some longish rides in prep. Also you can buy
'crampex' tablets for the sort of cramp that wakes you up in the night,
maybe you could try one of those a few hours before a ride? I was also
advised that hydration is important re cramp so you could try drinking much
more than you think you need.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

Jeremy Collins said:

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

Would you elaborate on this please? I don't know what these terms mean.

nog said:

Jeremy Collins said:

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

Would you elaborate on this please? I don't know what these terms mean.

No problem. "Mashing" is pedalling slow and hard against a high gear.
Beginners tend to do this as they think it's more efficient. It
certainly provides more power, but it's a technique best reserved for
very short spurts, if at all. Mashing is anaerobic, and uses "fast
twitch" muscles. You have approximately half as many fast twitch
muscles in your legs as slow twitch ones. Also, when your fast-twitch
anaerobic capacity is spent, it's really spent. You have to spend some
time off the bike recovering.

"Spinning" is using an "easy" gear, with many more revolutions per
minute of the pedals (pedalling RPM is called "cadence"😉. Spinning
is aerobic (it uses your cardiovasular system), and hence you can
recover whilst cycling to a certain extent (depending on your CV
fitness). You can cycle for a *lot* longer if you adopt a spinning
style, and you will also save your anaerobic batteries for when you
really need them. It's a lot easier on the knees in the long-term
too, as it places less stress on them.

If you've been riding with a mashing style, it will be hard at first
to switch to spinning, as your CV fitness will need to build up.

A decent high cadence is about 80 rpm (you can get a computer to
measure this, or just count pedal revolutions for 30 seconds). Lance
Armstrong can maintain a cadence of around 120 on the flat.

--
jc

in message <[email hidden]>, nog

(') said:

Jeremy Collins said:

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

Would you elaborate on this please? I don't know what these terms
mean.

To 'mash' is to stomp on the pedals like a potato masher, with all the
effort on the downstroke and a relatively slow cadence (less than about
60rpm - in some people much less). This isn't good for you or for the
bike. To 'spin' is turn the pedals briskly, with effort going into each
pedal for more than 180 degrees of the revolution, ideally all the way
round, at a much higher cadence - ideally 100rpm or more (some people
would say much more). You need some sort of pedal system for this -
either very good clips and straps or one of the modern clipless
systems. And it also takes consciously training yourself since it
doesn't appear to be the 'natural' pedalling style. But it's much more
efficient, and much less likely to cause cramp or damage to your knees.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
"This young man has not the faintest idea how socialists think and does
not begin to understand the mentality of the party he has been elected
to lead. He is quite simply a liberal"
-- Ken Coates MEP (Lab) of Tony Blair

Simon Brooke said:

And it also takes consciously training yourself since it
doesn't appear to be the 'natural' pedalling style. But it's much more
efficient, and much less likely to cause cramp or damage to your knees.

The very reason I ride a 64" fixed gear EVERYWHERE all autumn / winter
/ early summer ..... no choice but to spin!!

27 gears Pah!! probably only ever use 4 on my 'summer bestie' (actually
16 speed, still FAR too many)

Jack Ouzzi <[email hidden]> wrote:

: 27 gears Pah!! probably only ever use 4 on my 'summer bestie' (actually
: 16 speed, still FAR too many)

You can't live anywhere hilly then 🙂

--
Arthur Clune PGP/GPG Key: http://www.clune.org/pubkey.txt
The struggle of people against power is the struggle
of memory against forgetting - Milan Kundera

Arthur Clune said:

Jack Ouzzi <[email hidden]> wrote:

: 27 gears Pah!! probably only ever use 4 on my 'summer bestie' (actually
: 16 speed, still FAR too many)

You can't live anywhere hilly then 🙂

True, not now ... but still used to ride it around the Newbury,
Berkshire lanes in the mid 80's

Hill climbing is just in the mind !!! ;-)

Oh and I forgot to add, I used to get an electrolite drink powder made
up by a local chemist in Newbury (he used to supply it to Racing
Greyhound trainers, for the dogs) 20 times cheaper than the (then)
Isostar stuff .....

Brilliant stuff!! I used to bark and pant a bit after a 50, but no
unusual side effects ......... GGGrrrrrrr Ruff

ps I dont like hares much though!!

in message <[email hidden]>, Arthur Clune

(') said:

Jack Ouzzi <[email hidden]> wrote:

: 27 gears Pah!! probably only ever use 4 on my 'summer bestie'
: (actually 16 speed, still FAR too many)

You can't live anywhere hilly then 🙂

Doesn't prove it. I have a friend (popularly known around here as 'the
bus' because when you're tired you get on the back of the bus) who uses
very few - and frighteningly high - gears. He's a big man and looking
at him you'd say he was hugely overweight but he can do a 24 minute ten
and then keep up more or less the same pace for hours.

It's not a style I have any wish to adopt. He can do it because he's
enormously strong. I'm not.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; Sending your money to someone just because they've erected
;; a barrier of obscurity and secrets around the tools you
;; need to use your data does not help the economy or spur
;; innovation. - Waffle Iron Slashdot, June 16th, 2002

Jeremy Collins said:

nog said:

Jeremy Collins said:

How's your pedalling style? Mash or spin?

Would you elaborate on this please? I don't know what these terms mean.

-------------------------------8<

Quoted message said:

If you've been riding with a mashing style, it will be hard at first
to switch to spinning, as your CV fitness will need to build up.

Ah, now I understand. Thanks for the excellent explanation (and thanks too
to Simon :-).