Reasons for muscle cramps

I am less sore than yesterday, but my left leg hurts from around my hip all the way down to the bottom of my foot. It all seems connected with a thread running through it, but the thread feels too tight. There are a few points that feel especially uncomfortable (e.g. below the knee, on the lower portion of the inside of my calf and just above my left hip). I just need to rest it for a few more days before slowly starting my training regimen.

I was back at work catching up from the small holiday over the past few days. Surprisingly, I am all caught up already. I was working at bit here and there while in Cabo!

So I have analyzed long and hard about why I was cramping all day during the bike and run during the Ironman. It was a hot and humid day. While I don’t know the exact reason, there are a couple of theories:

  1. I was dehydrated. While I thought I was drinking enough fluids, I was probably sweating it out faster than taking it in. Hence, I simply was dehydrated and my muscles were cramping up. I am pretty sure this is what happened; after the race, I was put on two bottles of IV and I still didn’t have to pee for hours.
  2. I was diluting the electrolytes because of over-hydration. I was drinking mostly water at most of the water stations. Hence, all the liquid I was taking in was diluting all the salt and electrolytes I was taking in. This is also possible because I did pee once during the race.
So the lesson I learned from this is that when I do drink fluid on a hot and humid day, I should make sure that it is fluid laden with electrolytes (e.g. Gatorade or Powerade). This will balance my liquid intake with electrolyte intake.

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