Stomach cramps- what caused this?

I included those parts of your posts, because my guess is they explain most of your problem.  You went for you longest ever ride on a hot day and it challenged your fitness resulting in cramps (which you could alleviate by resting and changing your body's position).  Dehydration may have played a role.  Depending how many electrolytes are in the tabs, that could also have contributed some.  And if your body was working harder to stay cool, your stomach may not have been digesting your "standard" eating fare as well either.

Improved fitness (which your ride itself will help create) is one of the best "cures".

From past experience I can relate that poor pacing is also a huge factor when I get cramps. If you started out too hard (and the heat aggrevates this issue) that could have been the cause.

Legs are rarely if never the issue on my long rides. It is poor pacing causing the stomach distress.

Lap #1 I was in zone 1-2 (warm up lap) avg hr was 147 (temp mid 80s)

Lap #2 I was in zone 3 (race pace effort) avg hr was 159 (temp upper 80s)

Lap #3 I was in zone 3 (alternating 5 min hard effort with 5 min ez) avg hr was 158 (low 90s temps)

Lap #4 I was in high zone 2 avg hr was 151 (but it was about 95 at this point) (mid 90s temps)

I haven't officially done a bike LT test, but I have on my run, so I going by the assumption that my bike LT is about 10 bpm lower than my run, which is 180.

I suspect pacing too.  estimating your bike LT from your run LT is quite difficult unless your bike and run fitness are very similar; which is difficult to tell without bike and run blood LT test.  (see the Catch 22 in this?)

By way of example, at peak season my run LT is usually about 167, however my bike LT is 150.  Therefore if I did such a long ride utilizing 157 as my bike LT in my zone calculations and thought I was in zone 3 when actually i would be closer to zone 4, this would cause a problem...as you can imagine since I suspect you just experienced it. 

A "famous man" once said about IM fueling on the bike:

"If you feel good eat, if you don't slow down." 

Therefore, I would submit to you that if you ever experience this again in training, slow your HR down 10bpm and allow your stomach to do a little work for 15 min. on what its got inside already.

good luck and keep on truckin' . . . er I mean trainin'  

Very similar thing happened to me, during IMC this year....but they started earlier on. And it was definitely not pace related. Like you, I had done everything exactly as I had in the past...and outta nowhere they hit hard. And, anytime I tried to ingest something, they were back...and my legs felt fine.

So, yesterday I talked to this local pro (a FWIW, he's a chiropractor and coached by Peter Reid), he suggested that alot of GI problems in longer training/racing can be related to the source of carbs (glucose). He said using products with maltodextrin decrease the chances gastric issues. Not sure if that's useful (don't know the breakdown for the Shot Bloks or uncrustables), but that's about the only solid explanation we could come up with as to why it happened to me.

Hope you find a solution...the good news is, it happened in training, not a race!

Pacing but also changing what you have been ingesting may be a key here.

If it is hot you need GE more than every...you can always supplement that with electrolyte tablets. I do math before each long ride to makes sure I'm taking in enough calories/sodium. Then double check how I did after each. For every 16 oz you sweat you loose roughly 500 mg of sodium if you are a normal salt level sweater.

In general the higher the intensity of your workout the harder it is to digest normal food and things like gels/sports drinks are easier on your stomach. Need to keep the carb concentration in your stomach around 6-7%. Have you done a sweat test? If not I'd recommend doing one...as it could be that you were not hydrating enough do so your stomach was emptying and effecting carb %.

I log my calories/sodium in my BT log each long workout so I can go back and review in the future...becomes even more important once you start IM training.

Sweet ride...bummer about the cramps but good to learn and adjust now.

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going back to the GE during the longer rides, and also will determine my bike LT and my sweat rate. So many things to keep track of!!

Not sure if the pacing was part of it or not. I've done a 65 mile ride with similar pacing as the first 60 miles of this ride, with no issues, but considering the heat it certainly could have been part of that (higher HR). 

The banana went down exceptionally well. I may have to lay off the uncrustables and stick to bananas and shot bloks and gels. 

I love the Hammer Gels, they do go down easier. I was trying to do without the Gatorade because I can really only tolerate the mango flavor and that's not offered on the courses.

I would agree with the sucrose/glucose/maltodextrin thing. Gatorade and GE are primarily (if not totally) giving you calories from sucrose/fructose, which can in lots of people (includin me) cause stomach distress.

I find GE way too sweet and can't stomach it. You can't force your body to like it if it's not workin. Sure, it's on the course, but that doesn't mean you have to use it.

You may want to try another product that uses maltodextrin or glucose as the main source of energy. I use Infinit, but there are plenty of other products that can give you maltodextrin as the main source.

Here is very good performance member article that talks about the different sugars:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=910

I spoke with my coach today and she totally thinks my problems were related to not having enough calories and electrolytes. Given that I can really only stomach the Mango flavor gatorade for any long period of time, she advised me to buy a set of bottle holders for behind my seat and take 3 bottles of Mango gatorade with carbo pro mixed in and then use the 4th spot for a water bottle to be exchanged for on the course (with 2 hand offs, this should be 3 bottles of water) and to sip the gatorade with carbo pro and chase it with the water.

I also ordered a gel flask and holder for my bike and a container of raspberry hammer gel in case the above doesn't do the job sufficiently or in case I get tired of the Gatorade.

So I guess we'll see.... I don't have a lot of longer rides to try this out on before my HIM. Maybe only one more that's in the 40-50 mile range... the rest are probably around 30 or so.