2 years ago I would get severe cramps in my claves but only the night after I had a hard training session or race. I did considerable research on the topic and found that a combination of many of the recommendations made in this thread worked for me. Training: LSD is good and sets a solid base but all your weekend riding cannot be LSD. HIIT improves the conditioning of all your muscle groups employed while riding (including heart) and radically improves your VO2Max. Add spinning/Indoor trainer sessions to your training. these can be your primary HIIT if you want. Keep the sessions between 45min to 1hour and make them very tough. @ per week like this will be enough.Diet: Quit eating foods with non-natural sugars. Fruit contains fructose in an unrefined format. Refined sugars (and even too much fruit sugars) are VERY bad. So stop putting sugar in your tea/coffee, on your cereals/breakfast, eating bread and "treats" that contain sugar. Sodium intake vs electrolytes: These is way too much sodium in modern prepared foods, take-aways, tinned foods etc. Try and reduce this while increasing other electrolytes especially when sweating a lot and doing tough workouts. Try and find a low sodium replacement. (I swear by Hammer Nutrition's Endurolytes because it is exactly that). Electrolytes are way more than just sodium. We use all manner of other minerals when under exertion and need to replace these. Water alone is not good enough, in fact too much water alone with no electrolytes can cause damage (which I will not go into here) Correct Protein/Carbohydtrate mix when training and in between: Carbs produce fuel for your muscles (glycogen) and like any engine, your muscles need fuel. When they run out of fuel, they start to deteriorate because they end up using themselves as fuel. There will always be a measure of this in endurance sports. That is why it is important to eat enough protein as well. Protein builds and repairs muscles. On longer rides, make sure that you have some protein intake to help with muscle recovery. It is important to eat within 2 hours of exercise, preferably within 15 mins of completing exercise as the body is most efficient at absorbing the important carb/protein combination then. I use a good recover drink for that immediately after a long ride, then I eat something once I get home. Rest: You MUST get good rest in between training. You need to listen to your own body on this one. Some days I must admit, it gets difficult to discern between fatigue and "don't want to get up today and train"... Without sounding like a Hammer nutrition advert, I make use of several of their products because they are: 1. Designed for endurance athletes 2. Contain no artificial ingredients 3. Contain no preservatives 4. Organic where practical I know this was long but I hope it helps.
