Panza

During a hard crit race yesterday my calve muscle started cramping, I felt better a few laps later, and then finished the race.

Today, I feel fine except where I cramped.

Can anyone explain why it takes longer to heal and what I can do to aid in the recovery.

I did a laughably light spin this morning below 150W (averaged 71 watts) and I've spent most of my day off my legs.
Stretching or touching the area hurts.
Should I be eating anything in particular?

Thanks

Carbonfiberboy 

It's DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness, same as if you lifted max weights. There are torn muscle fibers from the max effort contraction. Easy spinning is the right thing to do, every day maybe 30 minutes. More protein might help, but if you already get enough, more won't help.

Next race or hard training ride, have a coin purse in a jersey pocket or up your shorts leg with plain 500mg calcium brand name Tums in it. At the first sign of a feeling of impending cramp, eat 1-2 Tums. It'll go away like magic. Cramps really suck as you see, and are to be avoided as they screw up your training so badly.

You can prevent early calf cramping by doing full range of motion one-legged calf raises on a stair, each leg to exhaustion, twice a week. Another magic preventative. But wait until your calf isn't sore anymore.

rumrunn6

my 2 cents: take potassium & magnesium supplements & soak in a hot tub with lots of epsom salt while massaging the area. 20-30 minutes minimum

chong67

Is this the first time having leg cramp? I have it when I first started.