Muscle spam while swimming.

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2011-07-07 10:48 AM

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Subject: Muscle spam while swimming.

Towards the end of my swim session last night, all of a sudden I had a really bad cramp shoot though my legs, my left leg especially, and I found that all of a sudden I coudn't use my leg muscles anymore.  I tried rolling on my back to float, but that didn't seem to help (most likely because I was panicking) so as a last resort I had to grab onto the lane line to keep myself from drowning, and pull myself across the pool to the wall.  It took several minutes before I was able to even pull myself out of the water.  I can best describe the pain as being similar to a charlie horse- only much more intense, and shooting up to my quads, rather then being just calf-focused.  I put ice on it last night, but my left calf is still rather painful. 

I'm not sure what happened.  It's not like all of a sudden I added a ton of yards onto my workout- I've been trying to build up my volume little by little, and all of my workouts involve a mixture of slow-moderate laps to work on endurance, as well as a few sprints to work on my speed.  My workout last night consisted of:

4x50 ez
3x100 moderate-fast (race pace)
300, 200, 100 moderate
200, 100, 50, negative split (second half faster then first half)
200, 100  fast
6 x 50 drill  (this is where the cramp happened)

I plan on taking it easy today.  Really bummed that I might not be able to get any training in since I have the day off today.  I just worry that I might get a cramp like this again in the middle of an OWS, and that I won't have anything to grab onto. 

Has this ever happened to anyone before.  What did you do during, and how did you treat it afterwards?  I 'm don't think form/technique is an issue, as I've been working with a swim coach from time to time, but can't understand why my legs would randomly "lock up" all of a sudden.



Edited by Lisavg 2011-07-07 10:52 AM

2011-07-07 10:56 AM
in reply to: #3584670

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Subject: RE: Muscle spam while swimming.
Mmm Spam is delicious! But I digress.

I find when I get cramps during training it's usually a sign of dehydration and lack of sodium.

Are you well hydrated?
2011-07-08 7:28 AM
in reply to: #3584670

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Subject: RE: Muscle spam while swimming.

Last year I was at a talk Dave Scott gave before a race. 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, in the pool and on both IM and HIM distance swims. I'd describe the cramps I get as a charlie-hourse feeling in my calf. I tried Dave's stretch since I heard him talk about it and have been 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 5 or 10 seconds. I do a quick one every 10-minutes or so while I'm swimming.

 

 

2011-07-08 7:32 AM
in reply to: #3584670

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Subject: RE: Muscle spam while swimming.
Without reading all the way through your posting I'm going to guess you've been building the number of times you swim a week and/or the distance you swim each week. Foot and calf are common as all get out when you start building distance.

You can try bananas, gatoraid and stretching before or after the swimming or you can just not push off the wall as energetically and ignore it for a couple weeks and it'll go away all by itself.

Yeah, I went through it too, to the point I could barely walk sometimes when leaving the pool. Took about 3 weeks of decreasing pain and then they quit entirely.

2011-07-08 7:36 AM
in reply to: #3586082

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Subject: RE: Muscle spam while swimming.

DanielG - 2011-07-08 8:32 AM Without reading all the way through your posting I'm going to guess you've been building the number of times you swim a week and/or the distance you swim each week. Foot and calf are common as all get out when you start building distance. You can try bananas, gatoraid and stretching before or after the swimming or you can just not push off the wall as energetically and ignore it for a couple weeks and it'll go away all by itself. Yeah, I went through it too, to the point I could barely walk sometimes when leaving the pool. Took about 3 weeks of decreasing pain and then they quit entirely.

^^^This^^^

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