I'm not used to practice in the mornings. I'm an afternoon and night swimmer. So, I'm guessing that I was dehydrated at our past Saturday morning practice. As I was doing my backstroke sets and pushed off the wall after a flipturn, I got HORRIBLE cramps in my calf muscles. They were so bad that I had to stop and go to the ladder and stand on it. I was able to finish practice without any more problems. I noticed Saturday afternoon, that my legs were a little sore, but nothing too terrible. When I got out of bed on Sunday morning, I nearly fell over on my face. Both of my calves hurt SOOO BAD!! Needless to say, no swimming or running took place on Sunday. It took me forever to get warmed up enough to walk normally!
They were a little better yesterday, but I still took the day off from exercise to rest them. They better today, but they still hurt when I point my toes. I'm debating whether I should go to practice today. I guess I could do the whole workout with a pull bouy. I hope I haven't really hurt them somehow. Anybody ever had this problem? Is it indeed just a sore muscle? Could it be something else? Should I still practice today?
Parents
Former Member
I recently experienced the worse leg cramp of my life! I was finishing a 2.5k open water event, (actually swam 2.85k cause of bad turn but that is another story) and almost could not finish the last 25 yards because of the cramp. Looking back and talking to my daughter, I deduced that I had so wanted to be hydrated for the race that I flushed all the electrolytes from my system (had drank water only starting at 5:30am, and a lot of it!) and never put any back in. She advised that I should have had something to boost their level...like a gel pack or something similiar....dont know if this helps, but I was easily sore the next day and more.
I recently experienced the worse leg cramp of my life! I was finishing a 2.5k open water event, (actually swam 2.85k cause of bad turn but that is another story) and almost could not finish the last 25 yards because of the cramp. Looking back and talking to my daughter, I deduced that I had so wanted to be hydrated for the race that I flushed all the electrolytes from my system (had drank water only starting at 5:30am, and a lot of it!) and never put any back in. She advised that I should have had something to boost their level...like a gel pack or something similiar....dont know if this helps, but I was easily sore the next day and more.
