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I must be more out of shape then I thought. I recently joined a mountain bike club and was taking part in a group ride with people who seemed to be pretty hard core mountain bikers and I was pushing myself hard to try to keep up. About an hour into the ride (lucky as we were approaching the end) I got this horrible, horrible muscle cramp in the upper part of my right calf; it just cinched up and the pain was so bad I thought I'd ripped something. Worse, my bike has those shoe clip pedals so I couldn't even free my foot right away and ended up crashing and then just laying in the middle of the trail with my feet still clipped into the pedals.
Man, it was brutal and all I could really do try to squeeze my cramped calf muscle in my hands to try to force it to unclinch. When it finally stopped I was able to unclip my feet from the pedals but my riht calf was still super tight and even mild stretching (to releave the tightness) caused the muscle to do more little spasms. I eventually limped back to my car and learned the wonders of trying to drive while the leg you use to push the accelerator was ultra stiff and occasionally spasming. Not fun.
Since getting home I've drank lots of water, ate a banana, tried to do some light stretching, and took a hot bath to soak the muscle in hot water. It's feeling better now but is still some what stiff. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to treat this or avoid getting more in the future or am I doomed to experiencing more of these as I get older?
Man, it was brutal and all I could really do try to squeeze my cramped calf muscle in my hands to try to force it to unclinch. When it finally stopped I was able to unclip my feet from the pedals but my riht calf was still super tight and even mild stretching (to releave the tightness) caused the muscle to do more little spasms. I eventually limped back to my car and learned the wonders of trying to drive while the leg you use to push the accelerator was ultra stiff and occasionally spasming. Not fun.
Since getting home I've drank lots of water, ate a banana, tried to do some light stretching, and took a hot bath to soak the muscle in hot water. It's feeling better now but is still some what stiff. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to treat this or avoid getting more in the future or am I doomed to experiencing more of these as I get older?
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