Muscle cramps

Alright.  I need to express a little frustration here.  My last two workouts have ended disastrously in muscle cramps.  Yesterday’s swim was supposed to be 3000 yards but I could only get in about 2000 before my calves started cramping so bad I couldn’t push off the wall.  Then, today I went on the longest bike ride I have been on in 20 years and followed that up with a 3 mile run.  Halfway through the run I had to start walking because my quads cramped.  Only this time I thought I was going to have to dial 911.  I haven’t cramped this bad since I ran the marathon.

I’ve been trying to come up with reasons why this is happening all of the sudden and I’m just not sure why.  My diet hasn’t changed in the past 2 months so if that was the reason it would have happened before.  The only thing I can think of is dehydration due to increased mileage/temps/humidity.  If this is the case, then I have a problem.  The weather isn’t going to cool off any time soon and my mileages are only going to go up.

The problem is, I thought I had it covered.  I had two water bottles (big ones) full of Hammer, two smaller bottles of water and a bottle of Gatorade.  I don’t think I can drink any more than that.  And I did drink it all, but it didn’t help.  All I could do was slowly crawl/limp my way back to the car.  Then I had to sit there in full cramp mode for 10 minutes before my legs eased up enough that I could push the pedals to drive without seizing up and driving into a ditch.

That was this morning and it’s late afternoon now.  I still feel aweful.  Nauseated, weak and I can’t lift anything or do any full contraction of my muscles without cramping again.  This is after a good meal, lots more water, a banana and two Enduralyte tablets.  This sucks.

I guess I just need to focus on shorter distances until I lose more weight and my body gets used to the higher activity levels.  I know endurance will come, but I thought I was in better shape than this.