I suffered now a couple of times cramps in the pool. Some are so bad that my calves hurt for weeks afterwards. I did all the research, to find out why. I also increase my dosage of Magnesium, Calcium and extra vitamins. I read magnesium is a muscle relaxer. Then somedays it works the others like tonight get bonked by a cramp in training, even though I had some magnesium this morning.

So, on the way back home I was wrecking my brain to think why it is happening. Unfortunately I had the constant reminder of pain in my calve to remind me. And then it struck me. It is actually something that I know and have recently read. Silly me not doing things that I read. But now I know and my body is telling me what to do next.

The common thing between all the cramping events is urinating. That is one thing I realized is common, an transparent urine and a need to go constantly. What did I do? It was not about taking to little magnesium but more about flushing it all out. I drank quite a bit of water and coffee during the day, because it is hot and want to stay hydrated. But I never topped up on the good stuff during the day and my electrodes and water ratio was all whacked.

So what should I do. Try again not to hydrate too much on plasma level, but on muscle level. Top up on electrodes at least an hour before the swim. Let’s see how that works.

So the training log for today was

300m Warm up
10x100m breathing stairs: 25m – 3 stroke breath, 25m – 5, 25 – 7 and 25m – 9 stroke breath. 10sec recovery between sets
3x200m – stretching and gliding, pulling hard and doing it slow 30sec recovery. Use pullbuoy
10x100m – shoulder rotation. 25m with left arm only keep other arm infront and straight. 25m with the right arm. Then 25m alternate every 6th stroke between L&R. 25m normal. Swim with pullbuoy
10×50 kicking with kickboard – 25m butterfly, 25m freestyle
200m cooldown