Muscle Cramping

Very simple answer (and it is not electrolytes or hydration ... there is no link between excercise induced cramps and those things).  You went too hard.

Underconditioning and race pace fitness are generally the culprit in these types of situation.

A trick that might help some is that as you are nearing the transition (about a mile or so out) work on spinning at a higher cadence but easier effort.  And stretch out your calves by pushing back with your pedal with one leg fully extended.

The key thing though ..... slow down your bike effort!!

I can vouch for Daremo's advice to the T.  The only other thing to add is that when I regularly do bike to run bricks as part of training, it seems to help.

This past weekend, I got bad calf cramps too and I thought it would happen.  I posted a PR on the bike by about 2mph and still tried to "spin" the last mile.  I had to stop once on the run and stretch.  The 1st 1/2 to 3/4 mile of the run was painful. 

Thanks for the help/info. I'll try to take it easier on the bike. It makes sense now that I think about it. I always get pretty stoked and fired up when I get close to the transition area and usually push pretty hard into the trans area. I'll try to pace the bike and slow it down...although I always want to try harder and go faster.

 The good news is I did really well on the swim ...PB 19:ish and I did it all front crawl with a decent pace...big accomplishment. And I didn't drown.

Well I figured out the problem. I had my cleats set wrong on my bike shoes. I had my right cleat sitting too far foward and it was in front of the ball of my foot. This made my right calf work super hard on the bike and caused the cramping in the transition from bike to run. So for the other dude that was experiencing some issues with calf cramping check your shoes. I guess you should have the cleats set back just underneath or behind the ball of your foot.

Thanks again for the feedback!!

 GD