Do you tend to run fine one day, and then cramp the next? Is it hindering your ability to reach your goals over 21km or longer? On this episode of the Ask Coach Parry podcast, Lindsey looks at what the chief reasons are why cramping takes place. Is it a simple answer?

Brad Brown: This is the Ask Coach Parry podcast and what a great question we got today and I think it’s the million dollar question when it comes to running. If anybody can come up with the solution, you’ll become a multi-multi-gazillionaire, I’ve got absolutely no doubt. It was submitted by Elizabeth Tarien. Lindsey, it’s one I think a lot of people struggle with and Elizabeth is particularly worried because she can’t quite figure out why it’s happening at certain times and not others.

She said, why can I run a 21km cramp-free one week and then the next week, or a month later, a 21km and she’s cramping pretty much from 19km and she’s really struggling. She says the route was pretty much exactly the same, weather condition were pretty much exactly the same, she ate and drank exactly the same, what could be the reason for that?

Fatigue is a major player when it comes to cramp

Lindsey Parry: Because quite a few of those things are similar and you actually took out some of the questions for me, so that’s good, fatigue could be one of the factors. So that fatigue could be from a number of things. Either the training load in the week going into the race or the accumulative fatigue of a number of weeks of training without exercising, or you go through a tough week at work or at home and you’re not getting any sleep in. Sleep seriously affects your body’s ability to recover. So there could be a fatigue model in play.

Is cramp a sign of something lacking in your diet?

Even though you’ve said that you eat and drink the same, you might be eating and drinking the same perhaps around the weekend. But if you look at the week to two weeks preceding the race, if there are marked changes in your nutrition, it could well be that you’re potentially lacking something in your diet. Although cramping during exercise is not normally associated and that would normally be associated with cramping at night, but for example, using something like slow mag may ease or relieve that cramping.

Newer runners can be more sensitive to cramp

Look, also depending on whether this is a new journey for you and that you’ve done a couple of 21s, or going on for over a really, really long period of time. Then my answer would be different, but it could also be possible that it is partly due to the fact that you’re still fairly new to running. Therefore are more sensitive to periods of higher fatigue and lower fatigue, which would explain why you cramp on the one day and not on the other day.

but look, cramping is a complicated issue. If it persists I would ask you to get in touch with me more directly so we could discuss more options. In the meantime, make sure that leading into each of these races your legs are always just a little bit fresher. so back off a bit in the days leading up to the race and let’s see how that affects it. Otherwise we might need to maybe have some deep discussion.

BB: Awesome, Lindsey, thank you very much. Elizabeth, I hope that helps, best of luck on your journey and get some rest. I think, for me often I’m not prone to cramping, but I do find that if I have limited sleep, I’m very achy and sore and do tend to cramp, so that helps me, hopefully that helps you too. Until next time, from the two of us, it’s cheers.