veggie_balls wrote:Yeah, cramps are 90% in my quads *during* the ride and when I'm chilling after my rides, I'll feels light twitches in my legs. Calves, quads, hams, etc. I'll check out Timothy Noakes' book.
I'm a heavy sweater too, but that's a good thing. That's a fundamental adaptation to endurance exercise, an improved ability to cool ourselves. I don't know if you use any commercial sports nutrition products, but I think Hammer does a good job explaining their rationale. When it comes to hydration and electrolytes, they believe similarly to Jeff, that a low sodium diet is most important. The diverge by still recommending athletes take their products, but they formulate them in small does, encouraging people to take only what they need. They won't hurt, so I add some to my drinks, but I think it's more for taste. They probably don't help much either.
Your quads are cramping on rides due to intensity. So re-evaluate your training habits, or embrace it, as you like. Electrolytes will almost certainly do little, but it's an easy and harmless experiment to try. Even if it's just placebo, who cares? As for the twitching, I know that feeling, that's the feeling of being "well-trained." As above, go easier, recover more, or embrace it. A couple of recovery tricks that have helped me are self massage, including foam rolling, putting my legs up a wall for 10-15 min after a ride, and topical magnesium.
Be forewarned, Noakes's book is exhaustive and exhausting. You read far more about rectal temperatures than you want. You might want to google around and find an interview or review to read first to get the gist of it. The research studies he describes are very detailed, but interesting. He wanted to be sure he was well supported since he was going up against a big industry, including the 800 lb gorilla Gatorade. Also, as author of the massive tome The Lore of Running, he has attracted quite a bit of attention for reversing his position on diet to advocate paleo, enough that he is currently revising the book. Unfortunate, but I think his research on hydration stands.