getting over charlie horses

lack of fitness? maybe you were trying to do too much too soon?
lack of potassium? maybe you need to eat more bananas?

I HATE it when that happens...those suckers hurt!

lack of fitness?  - probably
maybe you were trying to do too much too soon? - I'm following a beginner training plan, but possible

lack of potassium? maybe you need to eat more bananas? - good idea!  I've also heard potatoes help

I'm guessing here but I'll bet you just started increasing your distance in the pool and/or number of days a week you swim.

Don't kick off the wall so hard, just light push.
Ignore it and it'll stop in a couple weeks all by itself. You can do the potassium thing all day, you can take electrolyte pills all you want and you can drink your brains out with sports drink. Then you'll see that about two to three weeks later you no longer feel the cramping. Odds are if you had not spent the money on all those remedies the cramping would have stopped anyway.

How much time do you spend with your toes pointed during the day? How much time do you spend in the pool with your toes pointed? Do you think your calves are used to it yet? Give it some time and don't push off the wall so hard for a while.

While I fully support the eating of more bananas (at least 1 a day for this guy) i think Daniel might be onto something. Take it easy with your wall pushes and this should decrease if not complete disappear soon!

x3.
My money is on Daniel's response.

Very likely.



Very unlikely.

Shane

Could you feel the charlie horse coming on?

I used to get cramps in my feet often when I swam. If I recall right it was often at a certain distance and that changed over time became longer and longer.

I tried lots of things as mentioned but two things helped. First in the short term when I felt them coming on, I'd do all I could to get them at bay which would be change the position of my foot while I swam which would be moving my foot from pointed to not pointed position, get out of the pool and stretch them on the ladder or on the side of the pool. Over time and it was probably more than 1.5 years they went away and I don't get them any more.

My guess is it is a fitness issue and you can become aware when they might hit to avoid them and through consistent swimming they'll go away.

Sorry - I don't get on my computer a lot on weekends



No, I didn't feel it coming on - it wasn't a cramp, it was an all-of-a-sudden all-out siezing up of my calf. 

I've done this one before, about 2-3 years ago.  The first time it happened, I was only running (5-6 days/week pretty seriously) - and I was just in the pool goofing off with my friends.

Honestly, the first time it happened, I thought my achilles tendon had snapped because it was a quick, super-sharp pain, and then you could SEE the calf muscle all pulled up and "ball-like".  I completely freaked out, luckily one of my friends had had it happen to her, and assured me that I did not, in fact, just destroy my calf.

This time, I didn't freak out, since it was the exact same thing (same leg too) - but it's not a normal cramp.


I took a couple days off, I'm still sore today, but I'm going to try my scheduled bike/swim and see how that goes... (I'll take it easy)

and @Daniel

I started increasing my distance, but not by much (~500 yard regular swims, to 600-800 swims, but with a training program).

It better not take a couple weeks to go away!  When it first happened, I couldn't stand on my foot for about 20 min (despite hopping into the hot tub) - I didn't run Sat or Sun because of it.  I'm even a bit nervous about going back to the gym today!

I'll definitely take it easier with the push-offs...and spend more time pointing my toes at my desk (calf stretching).  I was just getting excited last Friday because I was actually starting to feel really good in the water, like I was actually gliding when reaching for breaths, and felt like I was finally getting this whole "swimming" thing

Don't push off as hard and use more leg and less ankle flexing when you do push off and it won't hit as hard either.

Oh, if you don't have one already, get "The Stick"
http://www.thestick.com/

That makes sliced bread look like an afterthought for nice things to have. It'll help

haha! 

I have a Stick and one for my feet too - like the Stick, but on a little stand so I can just roll my foot over it (I used to be a Zumba instructor...talk about foot cramps!!!) - I love them both!

Edited by rbtrumpet 2011-01-10 8:17 AM

I heard Dave Scott give a talk this November before the Silverman tri out in Las Vegas. He recommended "dorsi-flexing" your feet several times throughout the swim portion of the race to prevent calf cramping. This is stretching your foot by bringing your toes upward, toward your shin.....kind of the opposite of what most of us do with our toes while we're swimming. The extra drag does slow you down, but only for the few seconds it takes to do the stretch.

I've gotten leg cramps before on both IM and HIM distance swims. I tried Dave's stretch during my last IM race and was cramp free. Don't know for sure if it's a cause and effect relationship or just coincidence, but I tend to belive almost anything Dave Scott says. When I do the stretchs, I try and hold them for 10-20 seconds.